“The early bird gets the worm” is a quote that cognitive science student Jay Peterman was always told as a child. He’s always been one to plan ahead, showing up a whole hour before classes began on his first day and being the only one of his friends to secure housing because he started searching before receiving his acceptance letter. But Peterman’s first semester at UC Berkeley was a busy one, so much so that he forgot to do one crucial thing: book a flight home for Thanksgiving. Peterman was able to arrange a ride home thanks to the Facebook “Free and For Sale” group last week, but that didn’t stop the glowing disappointment from both himself and his family. Peterman’s father was able to comment for us, stating, “This goes against everything that we’ve raised Jay to stand for. The bulk of our Thanksgiving dinner was spent discussing strategies to prevent such a horrific event from happening in the future.” This strategy? Peterman booked a round-trip flight for Thanksgiving of 2018, with the same advance determination as if he were buying Coachella passes. “I left my 9 a.m. early and everything just to ensure that I’d be able to get the best flight possible. I was rather surprised to see that virtually every seat on the plane was available,” Peterman confessed.

Upon hearing the news, Peterman’s father called, telling him to “be sure that you arrive at the airport at least 12 hours in advance, given how much of a pain checking and security is these days.” After all this, will our boy Jay still end up making his flight? Find out in our follow-up article, coming in November 2018.