The day has finally come. We have been planning this trip for the last year and a half. For me, I have been hoping and dreaming the day would one day come to go on this trip for at least all of my adult life, maybe even part of my childhood. You might be wondering what trip I am talking about. It’s a trip to Puerto Rico. Let me give you a little bit of a back story.
My family is actually Puerto Rican. My great-grandparents were from Puerto Rico. They moved to the United States in their adult years, which is why most of the Garcia side of my family now lives in the States. I have always been interested in my heritage. I got to know my great-grandparents while they were still living. My great-grandfather passed away when I was only 6 years old, but I still remember him. I remember going to his house and sitting on the couch with him. That’s about all I got though. My great-grandmother didn’t go to be with the Lord until I was 15. I have much more memories of her. I used to love sitting around listening to the stories my great-grandmother would tell me of her and Granddaddy. It was because of those stories (and her fine cooking I might add) that I really grew an appreciation for my heritage. My grandfather has lived on to continue telling me stories of my heritage and it’s because of him that my appreciation for my heritage has grown even deeper.
Fast Forward to several years ago when I was on a trip with a couple of friends visiting Colorado. While we were on that trip, I told them that I wanted my next big trip to be a trip to Puerto Rico. They knew going to Puerto Rico was a dream of mine, so it was no surprise that I would be seriously talking about going. Not long after that conversation, I was talking to my mom and she said “Melissa, we just need to set a date and go to Puerto Rico. Let’s start planning and see who will join us. If we don’t ever set a date, we’ll never go.” My mom had never been to Puerto Rico before either and you know she wasn’t going to let me go on this trip without her. I have traveled without my mom before, but there was no way in the world she was going to let me go to Puerto Rico without her. Especially since the whole goal was to learn even more about my heritage.
So here were are traveling to Puerto Rico for the first time! Finally! We flew out of Charlotte, North Carolina because Charlotte was one of the airports that offered a direct flight to PR. My mom, two of my closest friends (although if you ask my mom, she would say we are more like sisters) and I all stayed in Salisbury the night before with my immediate family. We loaded the truck and off to the airport we went. We met my aunt at the Charlotte airport and it immediately felt like a reunion. I hadn’t seen my aunt in several years so it was really special that she was coming with us. We also all got to sit on the plane together, which was amazing because my aunt had bought her ticket a while after we bought ours.
From the very beginning, everyone was so nice. My first experience of Puerto Rico (outside of my family) was actually at the airport. We met several incredibly nice people both at the airport and on the plane. The first place I wanted to go after going through airport security was to get breakfast. While we were eating, my mom and aunt walked up to the table I was sitting at but there was no room at the table. It made sense because the tables were small and we had a large group. This incredibly nice man, offered for them to sit with him and they started chatting. He was retired from the Air Force just like my grandpa and he was on his way to visit his son who was living in Puerto Rico. So cool! As the conversation continued, it was discovered that he was sitting in the row in front of us on the plane. That poor man! I may have dropped my water bottle on him while on the plane, but he was so gracious. THEN there was a lady that was sitting in the last seat of the row my family was in and she talked to my mom the entire trip! They talked about how she owned an Air BnB and how she was going back to Puerto Rico to take care of her house. She was also incredibly nice! But you know, this is how my family does life, making friends everywhere we go.
My friends let me have the window seat so that I could see Puerto Rico as we arrived and I was so grateful they let me have that opportunity. 3 hours, 1 movie, many laughs, and maybe a tear or two later, we were finally there! As I looked out the window to see us approaching Puerto Rico all I knew to do was say “Thank you, Jesus!” I couldn’t believe it was finally happening! My dream had come true! Grinning from ear to ear it was time to race off the airplane, grab our bags and get going. I was just so happy! I remember hugging my mom when we landed and telling her how grateful I was.
We met up with two of my cousins who had flown in from another airport, grabbed our rental car and it was off to grocery store and dinner before going to our new home for the week. This travel day was so smooth (for the most part) and I was just excited to be in the place I had always dreamed of being, experiencing the culture and learning even more about my heritage. I plan to write more about this trip, but I am splitting it up into several blog posts because I have so much to say. This post really could go on forever. Keep a look out for future posts about my trip to Puerto Rico! Thanks for reading. God Bless.
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