Good luck

Can I go? Do I have to go? I'd better go.

Two of the three friends whom I have often met since I graduated from college have already married. Even the only a friend left was busy meeting her boyfriend to marry. The time of my friends hurried by with a happy sound, but I wandered in the stationary time, as if I was left alone in the elevator and hesitating which floor to press the button

If anyone asked me not to go, I may not have taken a flight to New York where I have no one to ask me to come, On a sunny late summer day after my last friend's wedding, I got on the plane in a white blouse on a jean skirt. I held my mother's hand tightly and cried all the way to Gimpo Airport. I couldn't stop crying even after I was on a plane.

My first flight, feeling motion sickness whenever I get in a car, stopped crying when I realized that it would be more motion sickness than a car. I really felt motion sickness at the thought of speaking English to ask Northwest flight stewardess for medicine for motion sickness.

I looked through the Korean-English dictionary and found that it was a 'feel vomit.' I told the stewardess what I found in the dictionary, but she didn't understand my pronounce. I managed to get a dose of medicine by lining the dictionary's English passages. I needed water to take medicine. I said, "water" but the stewardess didn't understand what I said. I said "orange juice" just in case. But neither water nor orange juice was available to drink. Again, I was embarrassed to show the dictionary, so I put the medicine in my mouth without water before motion sickness came.

The efficacy of the medicine chewed and swallowed from the mouth without water has been surged. My tongue has become numb and my throat has been tingling. It was absolutely outrageous. I couldn't tell the long story in English to the stewardess. I closed the eyes and wandered from place to place as if I had given up on life.

A soft hand tapped on my shoulder. I opened my eyes. She motioned to follow. She took me to first class. Even though I didn’t speak English, she kept bringing shoes, blindfolded and juice. Eat, drank as she brought it and I lay down relaxed. As time passed, I felt paralyzed and tingling was gone.

The plane arrived in Seattle. I was about to got up and got out the plane. The stewardess took me to the check-in. I went through the entry procedure at Seattle and put my luggage on a flight to New York. Before I change planes, she just sit me in a chair and hold my hands tightly and prayed for me. I can’t understand it because it’s an English prayer, but after hearing the "Amen," I said "Amen" too.

Before parting, the blue eyes of the worried stewardess, staring down at my face, were watery. She hugged me and gestured, "Good Luck." The first English I learned when I came to America was 'Good Luck' by an angelic stewardess. "Good Luck," which has helped and prayed for me by countless people living in the U.S., has made me who I am now.