All of the things that went through my head. How I spent the past year doing nothing to benefit my future. I was so focused on how I’d feel in the moment, how making the wrong decision would feel right for about ten minutes. I shouldn’t have quit my job, I should’ve broken up with him sooner, I wish I would’ve not gotten on this plane. Yet, being on this plane was the first time I realized how wrong my life has been this past year. Funny how being stuck on a plane in complete silence, with police officers having their weapons out and ready on the ground below, causes me to reevaluate my life. I have this strange habit, like many other people do: I tend to reevaluate everything in my life after I experience a near-death situation. This usually happens to people after a loved-one dies, or a person is sick in the hospital, or is severely injured. In this instance, it is quite clear that everyone on this plane is wishing they wouldn’t have booked this flight. I mean really, who books a $25 flight from Brazil to Miami on a small plane? Apparently me and 30 other people do. I am usually not a cheap person, I earn my money and I spend it however I want. I don’t make decisions on a whim like I did for this flight. I did not know what to do, what to think, what to feel. I was sitting on a plane with 30 other passengers, two pilots, and three flight attendants. My hands were shaking, like when I drink a bunch of caffeine and eat no food, but ten times as jittery. My legs were restless, like when I sit for too long and I eventually have to get up because my body convinces me that they will hurt if I don’t move them. It was silent on this plane. It was midnight, but the sky outside the window was bright; bright with red and blue flashing lights. No sirens, no yelling, I could hear the person two rows in front of me breathing. I am assuming all of the other planes that were supposed to land in Miami tonight were diverted to some other airport near here. I keep checking my phone. 12:30, still silent. 12:32, it feels like it's been at least 30 minutes, I sighed when I checked the time. 12:35, everyone is still quiet. The engines were turned off, there was no humming sound coming from the airplane like there was when we boarded the plane and sat there for a couple of minutes.

“May I check the time on your phone?” the lady next to me asked. Being the polite person I am, I turned on my phone, she looked at it with an expression of shock on her face. I didn’t know whether she was confused or scared. 

“It says the date is October 3rd, 2082. We left on October 3, 2022” she spoke to me like I was a child: slow, paused between dates.