Up in the Air

What do you see when you think about the airport? It’s travel day and your bags are packed. Off to the airport you go. You get dropped off at the departure gates and have to go check your bags, maybe wait in line. Then, you have to wait in what is typically an extremely long line to get through security only to be met with an impatient TSA agent. And they make you take off your shoes too?! When you think about the airport, it’s pretty stressful, lots of hustle and bustle, everyone is running around or running late.

It's different for me though, the airport brings me a sense of peace. I travel fairly often between Alabama and New York, so I spend a good bit of time at airports. Yes, sometimes it is absolutely crazy and not everything goes according to plan, but I always know I’m going home whether it is to Auburn for classes or back home to Long Island to visit my family. Or maybe I’m traveling somewhere new and exciting. 

I find something very calming in sitting somewhere near my gate and just taking in everything around me. The mother and son sitting across from me eating the pastries they just paid way too much for. The elderly man talking on the phone to who I determine to be his daughter by the sound of the conversation. The businessman anxiously talking to the gate attendant worried he will miss his connecting flight and then his meeting. The woman whispering French into her headphones, perhaps speaking to her lover back home.

Everyone has their own life, and we are quite literally all going in different directions. You never know what you’ll find. I love the airport.