he year was 1998, and this would be my first vacation alone.

I was 38 years old and had promised myself from a young teen, that I would visit America before I was 40.

I had been writing to my American pen friend for just over a year, when I was invited to stay.

I had got this guys name from a local magazine for incarcerated men, looking for pen friends.

That should have told me something, but I was immature and naive. 

That following year I saved as hard as I could to get my flight from the UK to Florida.

Upon booking my flight, I could not get a direct one so had to change in Newark NY and wait four hours for my connecting flight.

That year went so slow, but eventually the day arrived when I was flying out of the UK to America, this was definitely a dream come true.

I arrived eagerly at the airport and waited for my flight to be called out. I was flying with Continental Airways.

I boarded the plane, and waited until we were ready to take off. Settling into my seat and preparing myself for the long flight ahead.

Upon arriving at Newark, I made my way through passport control, and then through to security where I could wait for my connection.

My hand luggage was scanned and all was fine, then as I went through the security barriers I set off all of the alarms.

The security guard asked me to go back through, and to take off any jewellery or metal that I had on me and try again.

It was not until the fourth attempt I realised I had a belt around my trousers that had a metal buckle. I mentioned this to the security guard but he would not have it. He frisked me and used the metal detecting rod over my body. I once again told him that I thought it was my belt and it would be a good idea for me to take it off. After some persuasion and by now a group of people watching, I was anxious, scared and just wanted to go home.

The security manager came over, and I explained to him what I think may be the problem. Having had my bags searched a numerous amounts of time, and now all I could think about was this stupid belt of mine. Finally I was allowed to take it off and let it slip through the scanner where my bag went. I then proceeded through the security gate without a glitch. I was so relieved. I had spent just over an hour trying to get through, and I was very worried about my connecting flight. Surely nothing more could go wrong today?