(5 min read)

Great airplane seat partners are few and far between. It seems like you either sit next to the family with the crying child, the person that gets up every 20 minutes to use the bathroom (when you are in the aisle seat) or that person that is snoring the whole 8 hour plane ride.

Unless I have flown with someone that I already knew, I have never been fortunate enough to have that lucky seat partner that either is not a bother at all or one that keeps an interesting conversation. That is is until I sat next to Larry.

Quick point of reference for this flight. I was traveling from Cleveland to my Atlanta connection for my one-way final destination of France.  I was early for my flight and eager to start my year-long journey in France, then they announce that there is a 45 minute delay. COOOL. 😒 15 minutes. That was the time that I had to get off the plane and board my next one in the world’s largest airport.  Back to this later.

I found my window seat at about the halfway point of the small plane. It was just 2x2 seats. I was planning on putting my headphones in and binging some of the Netflix I had downloaded. Then a man that looked happier than anyone I have ever seen on a plane be, sat next to me.

He greeted me and immediately apologized for having to sit next to the old guy. First thought was oh boy.. he is going to be cracking jokes for 2 hours.

We started to chat about where we were traveling to. I told him briefly about my French adventure. He tells me that he is on his way home, to a small town in Peru.

Peru? How did you end up there and why were you in Cleveland of all places?

Larry explained that his wife is Peruvian and works as a doctor in the town where they live. The town that he and his wife live in is actually a small fishing village and they have a cottage on the coast. He said that the cost of living there is really cheap, a lot of the groceries that they buy are local(fish, fruit etc.) and rent is inexpensive. He has dual citizenship with Peru and the United States.  

Larry was born and raised in a suburb of Cleveland known as North Olmsted. A town that I have frequented many times, being an Ohio native. It’s not too crazy that he happened to be from Ohio considering we were on a flight from Cleveland, OH. He had been visiting his sister in Cleveland for a few days before traveling back home to Peru.

He went on to talk about how he retired from 30 years of working in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles; claiming that Los Angeles is one of his favorite cities. Los Angeles is one of my favorite cities as well and during high school, I had pursued an interest in acting in LA. I was ecstatic to hear stories about life on the inside world of LA. Larry is the first adult that I have ever met that loves (or even likes) LA as much as I do. I am from the midwest and people go to Florida, not California.

Larry and his wife have a 31-year-old daughter that lives in Los Angeles. Their daughter has schizophrenia and lives in a mental institution. He said that his wife has had a hard time visiting their daughter because she would not know who they were,  she would yell and scream horrible things while having uncontrollable hatred towards them. Larry says that he has learned to accept her illness and behavior that comes with it. He said that he just tells her that they love her because no matter what that is still their daughter.

Mental illnesses and the stigma that surrounds them was something that Larry had to educate himself about. He said that he use to be ashamed to tell coworkers and friends about his daughter because they would then act differently around him. But he realized that the illness is not something to blame on anyone and rather than hiding it he should bring awareness. He told me that recently the funding for institutes and mental health have decreased and he says that it is unfortunate because not everyone has a family or people to support them.

He added that “ If someone had a heart condition you wouldn’t hesitate to fix it, why is the brain any different”?

Knowing that I was headed to France for a year, Larry shared with me his favorite places to travel in Europe, from the best place to have wine to tips on traveling the cheapest. And since Peru is his home he was telling me all of the great places to visit there, including which trail to take at Machu Picchu (do the 7 day when you’re young, 4 day if you’re older). He encouraged me to travel while I am young and didn’t make me feel as though I should be scared of traveling alone.

Since the beginning of the process of my exchange program, Larry is one of the only people to not ask if I was scared with “everything” that is going on in Europe at the moment. Or aren’t you afraid that you do not know anyone? How are you going to communicate if you don’t speak the language? A year, that is a long time isn’t?  Blah Blah Blah….

Words of encouragement were all that he gave me. And it was just what I needed at that moment as I was embarking on my journey abroad.

Oh, and I did make my connecting flight 🙌, Larry asked the flight attendant if I could move closer to the front of the plane so I wouldn’t miss my flight and she gladly let me. I still had to run to my flight, but I made it just as they were announcing my name over the loudspeaker.

Larry shared his stories, his encouragement, advice, and joy; I will forever be grateful that I sat next to him at the start of my adventure. It helped set my attitude for the rest of my journey.  And also taught me that sometimes you need to engage in the real world and not tune out real-life interactions with the sound of Netflix or Spotify in your headphones.

Thanks Larry!

>> Morgan

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