Don’t Give Up

Have you ever had a time in your life when you just wanted to sit and cry as nothing is going your way?

If you are at home it can be as simple as pulling the duvet up over your head and hiding from the world, possibly having a good cry and then reappearing once you either feel cried out or ready to move on.

Returning from my holiday, there were a few points where my eyes welled up. But I couldn’t give in to it as had to continue.

Our first flight landed ok in Heathrow around 9am despite the crazy fog. Our connecting flight however was cancelled and this is where the drama began.

We were rebooked onto a flight at night from another airport, but we were aware there were many flights due to take off from Heathrow that day. We joined a queue and spoke to a lovely customer service person and they said to get that flight as all flights from our current airport were going to be cancelled.

We started the journey across London, got to the airport around 12pm. That airport was small and busy. Joined another queue and a lovely lady said she didn’t think our flight would go, not 100% sure though, hotels were full due to the number of cancelled flights so we would likely struggle to find accommodation. The thing was, we may not find out our flight is cancelled until 10 minutes before it is due to go.

This was the moment my eyes welled up. I was shattered as hadn’t slept much on my over night flight. I wanted to get home to see Scott and get a hug and I had work the next day. At this point none of this was looking likely, I was thinking I’d never get home. However, I breathed and we talked about waiting in the airport, but we both agreed this was a no as we didn’t want to wait for 8 hours to find out it was cancelled. We started looking at trains home instead.

Luckily my friend got us booked onto a train leaving from Kings Cross. So we Googled our journey from the airport to there and made our way back over. At this point there was about 1.5 hours to catch the train. We got there in about 45 mins, bought some hot drinks and ran like crazy to get some seats in the only non reserved carriage. The two of us were so pleased. We could sit and relax till we were back in Scotland.

We chatted, we texted our family to let them know our plans. I messaged my manager to let her know the situation and to ask if I could be a few hours late as I knew we wouldn’t be back till late.

All was going well on the journey until around 3.5 hours in, when we were told our train would terminate at Newcastle – the two of us looked at each other and couldn’t believe it. Luckily and thankfully the train person let us know there would be a train behind us due in about 10 mins going to Edinburgh. Phew. So we got off one train, grabbed another hot drink as it was freezing outside and found our platform. When that train arrived, we jumped on and got a seat. We only had about an hour and a half until we arrived. We had bought tickets for our connecting train, however, we knew we would miss this but thankfully there was only 15 minutes to the next train so we were confident we would get this one. But any delays would make it tricky and leave us with an hour to wait.

The train pulled into the station and my friend and I hot footed it to our next platform. Thankfully we made it and could finally relax as we knew our final destination was in touching distance.

I got off the train about 25 minutes later to be met by Scott. I burst into tears, it was a relief to be home and finally getting that hug I wanted. Over 12.5 hours from landing in Heathrow I was finally walking through my front door. The relief was unreal. Jumping in a shower and feeling clean was the best feeling in the world.

As much as I wanted to give up at several points on my long day. I knew I had to dig deep and get home. No matter what. My time for crying was when I saw Scott and not a moment before, because I knew once I started it was going to be very difficult to stop. I needed all my strength to push on and get home.

Everyday we are challenged and sometimes the challenge feels too large for us to cope with and giving up feels like the best option. Stop and breathe. Take a look around you and know you can do this. You will find the strength from deep within you. It doesn’t matter if you cry, scream or have a moment. Things will improve and your situation will get better. Use the resources you have and ask others for help along the way if you need it. Don’t give up. The moment you have been waiting for will come.

Sending lots of love to you all. Look after you and have a great week.

Love Emma xx