Airport thoughts…

7 flights in 2 weeks made me think a lot about the airport and your time there. Love it or hate it? But you can get a lesson from it.

Photo by Marco López on Unsplash

After a good time at the airport, buying overpriced food, and sitting where thousands have sat leaving their unique set of impurities every day, and no, I’m not complaining.

Believe it or not, I actually like the airport. You get to see all kinds of people. Razes, religions, groups, or individuals, we all need to move long distances and that brings us together. The input you get is maximized by the stressful environment, running to the gates, disoriented people, and the awful security process, while the airport trying to de-stress the environment with their white walls and soothing music.

The time at the airport makes the trip worth it. Watching a European girl towering among everyone, the group of Jewish guys with their “kipa” and the curly hair in their shoulders, or even the tan, standard-looking young man praying with his forehead touching the ground heading east, I guess. That beautiful combination is rarely found anywhere else as often as here.

And your mind travels too, you can create stories for each particular person you see, the tall fit guy may be playing a competitive sport in another country and it’s the key to winning the next big game, the Indian family looking for a better life in a city they don’t know, the teenagers meeting their family as they do once a year to see their grandfather one last time, or a romantic story visiting each other to keep the flame burning. Anything you want.

The best thing is to be open and talk and listen to the real stories which usually are as impressive as the ones you can create.

Then you get into the plane and share a sit with some random stranger, you don’t have to talk or stare or do anything at all, just be present to see it all, trying to process details and curiosities without judgments or biases enjoying the different inputs you can get. Humanity at its best.

This is putting in practice what the gurus or wise guys say over and over: “enjoy the journey”, our destination may be amazing: times square in NYC, Hawaii, Roatan or just going back home, but the journey should be acknowledged and enjoyed too

Here are some tips on how:

1. Brake anything you do in small tasks and focus as much as you can acknowledging each of them as an essential part of the process.
   Boarding, passing security, sitting with strangers all of them are tiny tasks that will lead you to your destination. You can’t miss or do wrong any of them, that’s why focusing and organizing your next steps is very important.
2. Be present and look for the tips, insights, moments that you, and only you, enjoy the most.
   A great meal, talking with friends, sharing your experience with a stranger, listening to stories, or just watching the singularities of everyone around you, whatever makes you smile, acknowledge it and enjoy it too. Stress, anxiety, or distractions, like your phone or random isolating music on your headphones, deprive you of these experiences (unless it compliments the experience like some great music does).
3. Remember and understand that “sh*t happens” Yes, Forest Gump was right, for him was a bit more literal but for you, it can be a loud crying baby, or babies, in the plane, a delayed flight, or a really tight and uncomfortable seat (yes, I’m talking about you Frontier).
4. It may sound crazy if I tell you that you should enjoy these parts of the journey too, but at least you can recognize the inconvenience, ruminate in it, and then let it go, focus on other tasks or make something good with that tiny obstacle. Maybe you have more time to read, play or work when the flight is delayed, a crying baby can be a good conversation starter, or, sometimes, just enjoy the lesson on how to bear those uncomfortable moments.