Dear editor of teen ink magazine. I hope that you will accept my non-fiction narrative as a suggestion for your magazine. Thank you for your time and cooperation.
Sincerely Kelsey Stratton

I was sitting at home doing my homework as I had been doing for the past hour when my dad came into my room, and turned down my music. He had the look in his eye like he was about to tell me some really exciting news. I quickly sat up straight and said “What’s up dad?” He sat down next to me and said “How would you like to go to Disneyland with me next week?” Of course I jumped up and said “Yes of course I want to come!”

I spent the rest of the next week packing. I was so excited and then my dad told me that I would be flying there alone. I was only 8 years old I was terrified of flying alone to a strange place. So my mom dropped me off at the airport promising me that my dad would be there to pick me up. I very cautiously went onto the plane. The flight attendant was really nice though and I’m pretty sure she could sense how scared I was of flying alone. She took me gently by the hand and led me into the cockpit. I just stood very quietly in the back while the pilots showed me how they checked the plane to make sure everything was ok before we took off. It was very interesting, but I was almost too scared to notice how cool it was.

Then the flight attendant came back and showed me to my seat. I was sitting next to this weird guy and an empty seat. I was so scared of him. He was a nice guy but I didn’t know who he was. During the middle of the flight I had to go to the bathroom so I got up and went to the back of the plane, but on my way back I had forgotten where I was sitting. I was so embarrassed. Thankfully that nice guy leaned out into the isle way so that I could see where he was, and if that wasn’t scary enough when we landed I got off the plane expecting my dad to be right there. I looked around for a while then another flight attendant said is your name Kelsey? I quietly answered yes. She said that my dad had just called and he was running a little late, but he would be there in a minute. I was thinking like two minutes but it was more like an hour. I was sitting in the twirling chair imagining that my dad was lying dead in the road when he came running down the walk way apologizing frantically.

Thankfully the rest of my vacation wasn’t that dramatic. It was a fun experience looking back on it. Although why I was there I thought my life was going to end.

Kelsey Stratton
grade 8
Miss Ozburn