A light drizzle turned into a steady shower of rain. I stared down at my phone, awaiting the call. Finally, my phone rang.
“Bonjour, je suis ici,” the delivery man said. Hello, I am here.
I saw his truck driving up the street towards my building. He pulled up in front of the door, parked the truck, got out of the vehicle, swung around to the rear, and opened the back door. Sitting at the edge of the truck was my turquoise blue tweed luggage.
A smile spread across my face. “I’m so happy I could give you a hug right now,” I said to the delivery driver.
He laughed and replied, “I just need you to sign here.”
I couldn’t believe it. After three incredibly frustrating days of botched coordination and logistics, obsessive tracking of an AirTag (located in the luggage), and customer service calls that led nowhere, I was finally reunited with my bag, which had been delayed on a flight from Nice to Paris.
There was nothing particularly important or expensive in the bag, but because I was busy trying to track it down and get it delivered to me, I had been unable to explore Paris. In fact, I had not even seen the Eiffel Tower until my fourth day in Paris. I was essentially trapped in my apartment, waiting anxiously for the driver to arrive. Air France had not given me information about when the luggage would arrive, so I had no other choice but to stay at the apartment until he came. Despite several calls to their customer service team, I did not gather any useful information.
As I pulled the bag out of the back of the truck, I was filled with an elation and joy that I hadn’t felt in quite a long time. It was strange. The contents of this bag meant almost nothing to me; it consisted of a few t-shirts, shorts, jeans, some toiletries, a few souvenirs, and a few other odds and ends. But the achievement of actually getting the bag back felt like a huge accomplishment. More importantly, I was relieved that the matter was finished. I did not have to worry about it anymore. I could now enjoy Paris.
Every frustrating experience is only worthwhile if you learn something from it. So here’s what I learned:
Feeling like a weight had been lifted, I practically ran up the four floors of steps with my luggage. I opened the door to the Airbnb apartment, dropped the luggage in the middle of the floor, threw my arm around it, and took a selfie. Reunited and it feels so good.
However, after the initial excitement wore off, I started to question why I had gotten so worked up about the delayed luggage in the first place. On one hand, it was an inconvenience. But on the other hand, now that the matter was dealt with, it felt so trivial to me. Even if I never saw this bag again, what is one lost bag in the grand scheme of life?
Won't I face more challenging obstacles in my life? Will I become this exasperated every time a similar situation arises? Am I going to let it consume my every thought until it gets resolved?
Surely, there has to be a better way to handle these things. Although I can't help but feel relieved that this episode is over, in some ways, I also feel like I've failed this test.
Perhaps that is the real lesson to be learned.
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A light drizzle turned into a steady shower of rain. I stared down at my phone, awaiting the call. Finally, my phone rang.
“Bonjour, je suis ici,” the delivery man said. Hello, I am here.
I saw his truck driving up the street towards my building. He pulled up in front of the door, parked the truck, got out of the vehicle, swung around to the rear, and opened the back door. Sitting at the edge of the truck was my turquoise blue tweed luggage.
A smile spread across my face. “I’m so happy I could give you a hug right now,” I said to the delivery driver.
He laughed and replied, “I just need you to sign here.”
I couldn’t believe it. After three incredibly frustrating days of botched coordination and logistics, obsessive tracking of an AirTag (located in the luggage), and customer service calls that led nowhere, I was finally reunited with my bag, which had been delayed on a flight from Nice to Paris.
There was nothing particularly important or expensive in the bag, but because I was busy trying to track it down and get it delivered to me, I had been unable to explore Paris. In fact, I had not even seen the Eiffel Tower until my fourth day in Paris. I was essentially trapped in my apartment, waiting anxiously for the driver to arrive. Air France had not given me information about when the luggage would arrive, so I had no other choice but to stay at the apartment until he came. Despite several calls to their customer service team, I did not gather any useful information.
As I pulled the bag out of the back of the truck, I was filled with an elation and joy that I hadn’t felt in quite a long time. It was strange. The contents of this bag meant almost nothing to me; it consisted of a few t-shirts, shorts, jeans, some toiletries, a few souvenirs, and a few other odds and ends. But the achievement of actually getting the bag back felt like a huge accomplishment. More importantly, I was relieved that the matter was finished. I did not have to worry about it anymore. I could now enjoy Paris.
Every frustrating experience is only worthwhile if you learn something from it. So here’s what I learned:
Feeling like a weight had been lifted, I practically ran up the four floors of steps with my luggage. I opened the door to the Airbnb apartment, dropped the luggage in the middle of the floor, threw my arm around it, and took a selfie. Reunited and it feels so good.
However, after the initial excitement wore off, I started to question why I had gotten so worked up about the delayed luggage in the first place. On one hand, it was an inconvenience. But on the other hand, now that the matter was dealt with, it felt so trivial to me. Even if I never saw this bag again, what is one lost bag in the grand scheme of life?
Won't I face more challenging obstacles in my life? Will I become this exasperated every time a similar situation arises? Am I going to let it consume my every thought until it gets resolved?
Surely, there has to be a better way to handle these things. Although I can't help but feel relieved that this episode is over, in some ways, I also feel like I've failed this test.
Perhaps that is the real lesson to be learned.
