In mid November of 2021, I planned a trip to visit family in North Carolina for a few days. Going alone also meant I would be going through the airport alone. Laguardia airport is not the largest airport in NYC but as the days leading up to my flight passed my anxiety grew more and more. What if  I get lost? What if the plane lands at the wrong airport? What if something bad happens?

I have traveled to really exciting places before, but with other people. So on the short ride to the airport I tried to remember what we did and in what order we did it. Check in, check in luggage, go through TSA, find your gate, wait, scan your ticket, and find your seat. That was exactly what I did – or what I tried to do. 

Once I got in line to check in my luggage, my heart began to beat faster and faster. What if my luggage weighed too much? Should I have packed less clothes? I watched as my luggage stood on the large silver scale and focused my eyes on the reader. Once I got the clear I instantly felt my body cool down and I walked to the TSA line. It felt as if I was the only one lost. Everyone knew exactly where they were going and what they had to do. A family of three was in front of me and they seemed to be doing things correctly, so I copied them. I had my plane pass and ID in hand and went on the same line as them. The father had to have picked up on it pretty quickly, because he gave me a sly smile as if saying, ‘it’s okay you got this’. Thankfully the TSA did not give me any issues and I followed the large crowd toward the gates. 

There was about an hour left until the plane would be boarded. The seating area got crowded as time passed. It surprised me how many people were also going to Raleigh, NC on the same exact day. I began to wonder what kind of plane we’d be on. To my surprise it was a super small one with rows that had two seats on each side of the plane. I slowly walked down the aisle all the way to the rear of the plane, afraid I would skip my seat and cause a traffic jam. Once I sat down I became less tense as I realized the most stressful part was over. It was time to enjoy the short flight.

We sit looking at flowers

The cherry blossoms falling

The wind pushing them to us

It’s the best season

My family and I go to Lake George just for a few days every summer. There are a lot of cute shops, good food, swimming areas, and other activities to do. One thing we do at least one night we’re there is visit a small ice cream shop. We always wait until the sun goes down and the stars begin to shine. The sky slowly becomes darker and darker and the night lamps are turned on. It’s the perfect time to walk along all the others who are heading toward the lights. It’s early July so the intense heat slowly rises and the air becomes cooler with each passing minute. The bright neon signs on the ice cream shop are fully visible and the line begins to grow. We get in line behind a family of three one of which is a baby in a stroller. Two pretty teenage girls follow behind us. They talk about the shop and debate which flavor of ice cream to get. One of them tells her friend that she is getting a chocolate and vanilla twist with rainbow sprinkles. I lean over to my mom and tell her that I want a chocolate and vanilla twist with rainbow sprinkles and she laughs. I guess she must’ve heard what I heard. I usually get a vanilla soft serve with rainbow sprinkles but her order became my favorite after that first taste. Shortly after we find a seat directly across the ice cream shop and I watch the neon signs change colors as I eat my ice cream. We come to this ice cream shop every summer and it’s still one of my favorite things to do there.

Colleen Hoover is an author who writes young adult fiction and romance novels. She has been trending on booktok (subcommunity on TikTok) for a while now and a lot of her novels gained high popularity from it. In April of 2022 I finally had the chance to read her novel, It Ends With Us. The novel follows the protagonist named  Lily, who marries a neurosurgeon named Ryle. Their relationship seems too good to be true until Ryle begins to surprise her with unexpected bursts of anger, jealousy, and aggression. The novel shines a light on social issues such as domestic abuse and violence. 

Reading this novel definitely had me on an emotional rollercoaster and I couldn’t put it down. There were times when I was swooned over Ryle and their relationship and other times where I found myself in complete disbelief and anger. The reason is that I was fooled for the first half of the novel. I, like Lily, didn’t expect the things Ryle did to her. One can argue that this is how many individuals find themselves in these kinds of situations. I believe this is one of the reasons this novel gained so much popularity on TikTok. Everyone liked how realistic Lily was as a character and how sensitive of a topic this was. 

Colleen Hoover has mentioned that she took inspiration from the relationship between her parents and her mothers own experience. She voices that it is possible to find yourself in this type of relationship but that it is also possible to be freed and healed from one. This is so important to get across because this issue goes unnoticed in some households and can be overlooked in others. This is a topic that should be talked about more and there should be more resources available. Colleen Hoover did a good job including a lot of resources for her readers on the back of her book.