It has been exactly 8 hours since I landed at the Penang International Airport, and yet these people have not given me any information about my transit flight. Â Here I am at the brisk of dawn, after an excruciatingly long traveling experience, and no one seems to care. At exactly 6 a.m., I left from my cozy apartment in Amstelveen, directly to the headquarters of KLM. As the Schiphol Airport is just 13 minutes away by bus, my senior management decided to not book a return ticket for me, and instructed me to walk into the KLM headquarters in Amstelveen and demand for a ticket, to quote Mr. Singh âNoah, we are auditors, we demand for everything.â
I forgot to mention my name is Noah Gill, and I work for KPMG. Our international headquarters is located in Amstelveen, so I pretty much live here. Anyway, as I was saying, I left my apartment exactly at 6 a.m. for the headquarters of KLM, walked onto the street and called for around 33 cabs before one kind man decided to stop his cab to give me a ride, and then charge me 8 euros extra for it. Never before have I witnessed a cab driver with such a disillusioned face. Li Wong, his name badge read, probably from his second job. His accent had a minor Cantonese undertone to it, which reminded me of a couple I once rented a room from in Hong Kong. They used to speak of an estranged father who moved out of their family home to work abroad for money, as he was ashamed of not being able enough to support his family in his hometown anymore. Technically, there is a tiny chance that this man is their father, which could also explain the sadness on his face. If only my father had witnessed such an act, he would have probably learned certain strong family values. My father is an unsuccessful comedian. I mean donât get me wrong, he was a huge rave in his time, but well, the time has passed. Â
 As I climbed the slippery staircase to the KLM offices, I was forced to perform a mini leap that ripped a stitch in my pants, creating a frustrating mini hole in my inner thigh, all to avoid one broken stair.  Then, when I finally approached the glass doors to the main office, the front desk executive at the reception, Ms. Annelise Diederik, decided that it was time to exercise her redundant authority and denied me entrance into the managerâs office. This world is pretty much the Penguin to my Batman. As I tried to reason with her, âI need to catch a flight a.s.a.p.â âMy boss told me he would inform your bossâ. âYou know how they can be,â I noticed a prick in her eyelash extension next to her smudged eyeliner. My mum used to have the same issue whenever she tried to cover herself with makeup when she teared up a little. Â
After about 19 odd minutes, my negotiation with Anne worked, and she permitted me to enter Mr. Smytheâs office. âNoah, my man!â Sebastian exclaimed. Â Sebastian has always been an adorable human, his Irish accent, his big belly and his jelly doughnuts; with his extreme intimidation tactics making running the entire empire of KLM seem âcuteâ, for lack of a better word. In my long unnecessary small talk with Sebastian, my curiosity obviously crept up, so I enquired about Anne and her smudged make up. Thatâs when I got to know that Ms. âFront Desk Executiveâ has decided to quit her job, and devote all her time to her children through something called as âradical un-schoolingâ, wherein they travel 365 days a year around the world and embrace life as it comes. Â âSo she was just basically feeling overwhelmed.â Sebastian stated. Of course she should, she just gave up on daily earnings and basic education for her kids, which should be an interestingly ridiculous way to live. I mean its cool in a way, but I come from a background where my mum worked all day long and made sure I got straight Aâs, to avoid ending up on the streets, so voluntarily living without money and education is pretty much everything I donât believe in.
 As I exited the office with the ticket for my transit flight and jelly stains on my shirt from Sebastianâs affectionate bear hug along with the mini hole in my pants, I wished Anne all the very best in life. She stared right through me for about 3 seconds and gave me an amulet, and wished me the same.
 I caught the 9:45 a.m. bus to the Schiphol Airport. That bus ride had to be the most peaceful part of that entire day, there was absolutely nobody that wanted to annoy me or make conversation with me. The only conversation I had after that was in the 11: 50 a.m. flight with this adorable 9-year-old girl, Zehra Kahn, who gave me her lollipop, as I was kind enough to offer her the window seat. She kept staring at me while; I kept staring at the amulet. She told me she had seen something similar to this once in a book at her school, but she apparently could not recognize it at that very moment. I found the intensity in her eyes as she watched me quite fascinating. She chose to help me out, even when she had the world of stars to watch outside the window. She had now become the Robin to my Batman.
 14 hours and 51 minutes later, the entire flight dispersed into Penang International Airport, where I along with Zehra, her Ummi, Abu; Dr. and Mrs. Crane, Mr. Sharma, Ms. Yao Min, Mr. Diego and wife Adisa and other 15 odd people realized their sub-load ticket takes a little more time than usual to receive access into the next flight, a little more than 8 hours. In this time the only thing I could concentrate on was the amulet. 8 hours and 20 minutes into this delay, the dull news on the television erupted into a frantic phase of bright colored news tickers and crawlers. With an announcement that 168 people got caught in the crosshairs of a political fight, in Nibong Tebal, and theyâre being relocated directly from the underequipped hospital to the Penang international airport, for medical transit to another country. The entire city of Nibong Tebal has been called for a lock down, and people have been restricted to their homes, and volunteers are being called out to. At this very moment all the faces at the airport had become disillusioned, thatâs when it hit me, I have seen this expression before; I have seen this amulet before. I saw it hanging off the center mirror of Li Wongâs cab, âMr. Man!â shouted Zehra. âThat amulet represents choices, choices that lead to new beginnings. My book said that those who get this amulet are chosen to accept a new path for themselves, a path of self-disc..disc. âDiscovery,â I completed for her.
 âItâs called the âCitizen of the Worldâ, most people end up traveling away to far away places, learning new things about the world, to help them grow,â stated Zehra. I thanked her and paced back to my seat, I realized why I had such a difficult trip, why I met the people I did, who may have resembled my family, my past, its all to bring me to this realization, that my constant interaction with this world, deserves more, deserves me to be someone else, deserves me to be something else. Certainly not an auditor with ripped pants, but maybe a Citizen of this world. Â
 âAll the passengers from flight KL0810 boarding the flight to Manchester International Airport KL7806 please make your way to immigration.â âAll the passengers interested to volunteer to help the victims please shout out âAYEâ â. At this point, only Robert Frostâs lines were going through my head,
 âTwo roads diverged in a yellow wood,
 And sorry I could not travel bothâ
 So I did the only thing that I could  do, I picked up my handbag, gave my baggage claim tag to Zehra along with the  amulet, and yelled âAYEâ.
 âAnd that has made all the difference.â
