Chapter 4-New Seattle

After what seemed like forever, I finally felt the airplane begin its descent. I looked out the window, and there it was, the beautiful city of New Seattle was there right on the coastline of the Pacific Ocean. Our buckle seat belt lights came on, and the pilot came over the intercom, telling us that we would be landing shortly. We landed, and I quickly got off the plane. Once I had escaped the huge crowd of people leaving the plane, I ran to the baggage claim and grabbed my bag. I realized that it was only 7:15 in the morning, and I hadn't had breakfast due to my rushed morning. "Well," I thought, "I have a lot of time to find my way into the city and find WCO." I found a quick restaurant that served breakfast burritos. Although I had just told myself that I had plenty of time, I gulped down my burrito without savoring any of it and went to the nearest shuttle stop. I took the bus downtown, and on the way, I couldn't help but yet again think about my life ahead of me. When we had arrived downtown, I got off at the bus stop, and I was thankful that there was no situation like the one in Wichita. Everyone seemed busy and kept to themselves as they rode the bus to work. When the bus left, my mind went completely blank… I went all this way to plan my flight, but here I was, in the middle of the towering glass and steel skyscrapers, clueless as to what I did next. Should I look up the way to WCO? Should I find a hotel to stay in? What will I do for food today? Transportation? My mind rushed with a million stressful thoughts. I began to panic. "Ok, ok. Just calm down," I said, reassuring myself. I sat down on a bench and took the time to relax and think my day out step by step. The first thing I was going to do was find the location of WCO, look up how to get there, and find a cheap hotel near it. I pulled up my iHolo and searched for it on the map. Thankfully, it was only about 20 blocks away, so I could probably walk there in reasonable time. I next looked for a hotel and found one close by. It wasn't as cheap as I thought it would be, but surely in the short time I would be hired, I could afford to pay for however long I needed to stay for training. I made the walk to the WCO building after booking my room, and on the way, I was looking for any sign of the building. When my iHolo showed that I was there, I looked around, but I did not see anything that displayed WCO on it. There were hundreds of cars driving through all of the streets around me, honking and revving their engines. I felt disoriented as I started to have tunnel vision. I reached out of my backpack to sip on some water, regaining my composure. "Excuse me?" I said to a person walking by as I wiped the droplets of water from my lips, "Could you show me where the WCO building is?" "Um, right there, bud," the man said with a tone that made it seem obvious that I was overlooking something. He was pointing to something straight behind me. I turned around, and there it was: the tallest, grandest building in the center of the city: the WCO installment. I guess I was expecting a smaller building, so I totally overlooked the towering, shiny, beautiful tower right behind me. "Oh, tha-tha-thank you!" I said, still stunned. I took a good, long look at the building, and I knew that from this moment on, it was the beginning of a new life.