Lost Laptop Meant Mandatory Month Off 

“When gratitude becomes an essential foundation in our lives, miracles start to appear everywhere.”

– Emmanuel Dagher

Happy New Year!!

I hope 2024 is off to a good start for you! I just arrived back home in Canada and wanted to send out a quick note of explanation as to why you haven’t heard a peep from me in months!

Would you believe I LOST my laptop?!

Here’s what happened:

In early December (three months into my four-month Epic European Adventure), I was leaving Paris to go to the UK. I was going through security in the Charles De Gaulle airport (CDG) and, as per my usual routine, I pulled my (grey) laptop from my carry-on case and put it into a (grey) security bin, so that it could go on the conveyer through the x-ray machine.

Fast forward to three days later and I went to get my laptop out of my carry-on case and…it wasn’t there.

Which, of course, is impossible…because I would NEVER leave my laptop behind. Anywhere. Ever. So then how could someone have possibly stolen it from the carry-on case I never let out of my sight?

Well, they couldn’t of course. Because in fact, I DID leave my laptop behind. At security in CDG airport.

Quick fun fact: in terms of surface area, CDG is the second largest airport in Europe (Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport is third…which I can personally vouch for because I actually sprinted through it, trying to catch a connecting flight a few weeks ago – but that’s a whole other story).

But back to the lost laptop…

Once I finally realized (only took me three days) that I had likely left my laptop at security in CDG, I asked myself (as calmly as possible), “Now what do I do?”

The answer: “Go online!”

So I did (on my phone, of course)…and wouldn’t you know it but CDG has an excellent lost & found service for situations such as this. Apparently I’m not the only absent-minded traveler. I immediately input as many details I could about my lost laptop…and a few minutes later, I got a message back. Voila! My missing laptop had indeed been found. YAY! I just about cried with relief…and gratitude.

I was given the option of returning to CDG to pick it up in person – or paying to have it couriered to wherever I wanted. For logistical reasons, I chose to have it couriered home to Canada.

Sure enough, a few days later, my laptop was back in my home office, safe and sound. Without me. Because I still had a month of traveling left. And do you know, temporarily losing my laptop was the best thing that happened…because I really needed to take a break from work.

I’m the one who left my own (brand new) laptop behind in one of the busiest airports in the world (the 10th busiest as a matter of fact). That is REALLY weird! Mind you…I was still pretty sick from an intestinal bug picked up in Morocco the week before. But that, too, is a whole other story 🙂

And now that me & my laptop are happily reunited, I shall resume sending out my Epic European travel blogs next Wednesday!

Till then, take care & have a fantastic week!

Maryanne Pope is the author of “A Widow’s Awakening.” She also writes screenplays, playscripts and blogs. She is the CEO of Pink Gazelle Productions and a co-founder of the John Petropoulos Memorial Fund. To receive Maryanne’s blog, “Weekly Words of Wisdom,” please subscribe here.