I’m on another airplane.
Somewhere between where I was… and where I’m going next.
That’s the part no one really sees.
People see the amazing photos.
The whale.
The orca.
The moment where everything comes together.
They don’t see this.
The long flights.
The delays.
The cramped, uncomfortable seats on the plane.
Not in the good seats…
the ones in the back.
The ones you can never quite relax in.
If you’re lucky, it’s a three-hour flight.
But most of the ones that take you to those faraway places…
the places where all the amazing wildlife seems to live…
are always more than nine hours away.
So there you sit.
We waited three days for the beaching orcas hunting sea lion pups.
Three days of wind, rising tides, and nothing.
Just sitting quietly on a beach, scanning the horizon.
Hoping.
Then one morning…
They showed.
And in seconds, it was over.
That’s how it works.
Hours… days… sometimes weeks of nothing.
All of that… for a moment that barely lasts.
And somehow…
that’s what makes it worth it.
Because when it happens…
you’re not thinking about the flights…
or the waiting…
or the missed chances.
You’re just there.
And for a second…
you feel like you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.
That’s what people see when I post those images.
The perfection of a moment that came together.
But this crappy seat I’m sitting in right now…
this is what it takes to get there.
