[zenfurni]

After my junior year of high school, I was going on a school trip to France (two weeks with host families in Strasbourg, one week w/ Americans in Paris). School ended the 10th of June, and we were flying out the 11th of June, my birthday!

I got up in the morning, finished packing, but could not find my passport. I decided to go to the airport anyway, see if I could arrange something with my birth certificate, etc. As the whole rest of the school group watched, I got denied and told to book the same flight the next day and to get an emergency passport in the morning.
As my mom took me home from the airport, we both looked at each other and realized where my passport was. I had stuck it in a book in my backpack that was WITH ME THE WHOLE TIME AT THE AIRPORT, and it had fallen out and spent the whole ordeal in the bottom of my backpack.
My mom and I had a somber dinner at Pizza Hut, and I resolved to brush it off and come back to the airport the next day.

The next day, I got on the plane, and some stupid weather conditions kept us on the runway for an entire four and a half hours. Landing in Brussels five hours late, I found out that I had missed my connection to Strasbourg, and I said, "no problem, put me on the next one." "There is no next one."
At this point, I met up with a student group from a rival high school from my flight, and I found out they had booked a chartered bus as we waited for our luggage. They kindly invited me to join them. As I watched everyone else get their bags, I was told that they couldn't wait for me to get my luggage, and I would just have to come with them.

I spent six hours on the bus to Strasbourg with a bunch of freshmen and sophomores from a rival school (my group was mostly juniors and seniors, which felt like a huge maturity difference back then), and I managed with one change of clothes until I got my bags three days later. The rest of the trip was fun, but I don't think I'll ever have a birthday like that again.

Cliff Notes:
Junior in HS, going to France
lost passport, found it under my nose
delayed flight, missed connection
annoying bus ride, lost luggage