Fin

It all ended very regularly. I took my last exams, packed up all my stuff, and went to the airport where check-in for my flight home took an hour and a half.

Then, the woman working security thought a jar of coins that I was carrying in my backpack looked suspicious. I was detained for nearly 10 minutes as she examined the jar’s contents to make sure that there were no weapons hidden amongst the quarters and nickels. The band stickers that covered the tomato sauce jar’s glass surface probably didn’t help things, but all I could do was stand by patiently and watch the two members of airport security personnel examine the jar as if it were a great archaeological find. I just hoped that I would have enough time to pick up some mindless magazine to read on the plane.

But, by the time I had jumped through all the flaming hoops, and the security folks determined that the jar contained “just coins” my flight was in the final stages of boarding and I had no time to pick up a copy of People. On this day, I wouldn’t get to read the true stories which fill People’s pages. The ones with dramatic narrative arches and heartwarming endings like in the movies.

Maybe it was for the best. In real life, things almost never end like they do in the movies.