TIFU by missing my international flight because I thought it was the next day

I am currently sitting in the airport wondering how in the world I managed to fuck up this bad.

I’ve wanted to study abroad in Japan for 8 years now, and this year in my junior year of university my dream is finally coming true. Also note: I have never left the country before.

I was planning on traveling with a friend, and our flight left today, Sunday, at 7:45 this morning. My dumbass thought the flight was tomorrow, Monday. I had written this down weeks ago, and told everyone that I was leaving on that day.

I woke up at 6 am to a text saying “Are you at the airport yet? Where are you??”

I literally kept out of bed, thinking about how screwed I was. And how mad my parents were gonna be (spoiler alert: they were, even wanted me to just stay home because how can someone who does that travel to another county alone?)

I had almost everything packed already, but I had to throw everything in my room into my suitcase. Then I had to lay on it to get it to close, didn’t have time to make it organized.

I called an uber and waited outside while it snowed on me. Called the airline, and the next available flight today is…leaving at 7pm. I had already committed to getting to the airport. I thought maybe, I wouldn’t have to wait too long. Nope. Also I’m so sorry to my uber driver, who had to listen to my parents yelling at me. Hope you like my extra tip.

My current plan is actually hell. I’m already at my gate, and it’s only 10am. I get on a flight to Houston, and have to stay overnight in the airport from 11pm-5am. Then I get on another plane, go to San Francisco and have yet another layover for a few hours. Then I finally get on my flight to Japan, and I’ll get there at 5pm on Tuesday.

I’ll now get there after the move in time slot for my Japanese dorm. I hope I can move in, if not I got a hotel as backup.

I’ve never spent the night alone in an airport or been through customs before. If anyone has any tips, let me know.

Now I get to sit in this freezing airport and contemplate my stupidity for the next 9 hours. I will never live this down. I’m a science major, and my dad kept asking me how I was a studying science yet overlooked such an obvious detail. Moral of the story is, actually look at your flight.

Edit: This is the first time I’m using a different airline than my regular one, so still learning how it functions. Due to the huge time difference between the U.S. and Japan, I knew logically that the day I left would not be the day I got there. But that didn’t register in my brain for some reason.

Yes, my parents had my itinerary. No, it wasn’t their responsibility. And also no to my friend and I getting in touch the night before. That wasn’t their responsibility either.

I wrote down the wrong day and never thought to doublecheck. That was quite possibly the dumbest thing I’ve ever done, and I’m still beating myself up over it. But I will learn from this.

Not an excuse for my irresponsibility by any means, just an explanation for how tf this happened.

TLDR; I thought my flight to Japan was leaving Monday but it actually left Sunday and I missed it, leading to me spending an ungodly amount of time in various airports.