I have dreamed of travelling abroad, but because of COVID-19 I have not been able to. To get the feeling of travelling, I took a plane to my hometown. I like watching the sky, but my favorite thing is to be in the sky in a plane. I was sad because I did not take a plane for almost two years, which is why I decided to take a plane. Although I did not go on a trip abroad, I wanted the feeling of flying through the sky. I picked a short flight because I did not want to fly for a long time and was worried about coronavirus. At that time, I stayed in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi-do for a few days. I bought a ticket from Gimpo Airport to Gwangju Airport. It was very complex because it took two and a half hours to go to Gimpo Airport and took a long time to my hometown Mokpo from Gwangju Airport. I could have gone to Mokpo by the Dongtan-Mokpo train. However, I did not hesitate to buy the ticket because I wanted to fly regardless of the inconveniences.

Sunday morning at 7:00 was the day to take a plane! I was excited at the thought of flying for a long time and tired because it was early in the morning. Eventually, I arrived at the airport! It took more than two hours, but I was full of joy. I had not seen the airport in a long time, and it was unfamiliar and quiet. Before COVID-19 at the airport, there would have been so many people eating something while they waited for their plane. In contrast, now there were people sitting and watching their smartphones at a distance due to social distancing. It made me sad.

Finally, the plane taxied to the runway for a long time, the engines started, and then started to fly toward the sky! I was even glad to feel this deafness. In the sky, the children’s voices were so sweet to me. When I was young, I had a dream that I wanted to fly in the sky. I wondered if these children had a dream like me and what they were thinking now. When I stopped daydreaming, I looked out of the window for a while. The buildings looked smaller than my nails and the high mountains were the size of my hand. The cute fields and rice paddies looked like toy blocks; the roads looked like a curve drawn by someone and the jade rivers were so adorable.

The plane came to the highest point at last. The sky, which I have always looked up to, was next to me. I felt blissful at this moment because I could look at the sky with nothing in the way. I was spacing out without music. Come to think of it, the scenes of the sky are very diverse. It turned blurry, turned blue, and suddenly the two colors merged; then suddenly split and turned into a picturesque shape. Looking at the sky was so pretty. Spending this time concentrating entirely on the sky, I felt overwhelmed and touched. At that time, I thought there would be no greater landscape than this scene. I felt like I was deep in the vast sky. I organized my thoughts while feeling overwhelmed with many emotions. I felt sad when it was time to get off. A long time passed by since I got off the plane and went out the exit. I felt like I was traveling until I left the airport. The plane trip was an opportunity for me to see and feel the environment that I was familiar with in a new way. Feeling the emotions and focusing on the environment on this trip was only possible because of COVID-19. This was a trip that focused on the journey, not the destination. All photos by the author.

Kim Yueun  yusilver0711@naver.com

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