Week 3 Theme 4

Revision (of week 2 theme 3)

My first time flying alone, I carried three dollars and twenty-five cents in quarters. It was five dollars, but I used some to tip the taxi. You never know when you need exact change. One return flight and cut hand later, I began to carry hand sanitizer and Band-Aids.

Then I added a Philips 0 screwdriver out of a desire to differentiate myself from other travellers. And also out of paranoia. Everyone has a laptop, but few carry the means to repair them, and no hotels offer complementary screwdrivers. As if fate needed to justify my paranoia, my laptop broke down on a trip to China, where I could not trust the computer repair shops with my files.

When the left lens fell out of my glasses in the middle of Chicago O’Hare, I began carrying a two millimeter flathead screwdriver as well – many wear glasses, but few carry the means to repair them, and hotels don’t offer flatheads either. Years later when I was once again in O’Hare, this time stranded and on perpetual hold with customer service, I ran out of phone battery. So I began to carry an extra one.

Eventually, with my travel problems solved, the utter boredom caught up to me. I had always carried banned books so that I could simultaneously enjoy the great literary works and others’ discomfort, but no book can hold back the drone of threat level colors and passenger names. No, I could not accept the collective malaise of several acres of waiting areas. I needed energy and flash, a differentiating prop. Thus I began to carry juggling balls.