Airports and humanity

Airports blow my mind.

This weekend I flew to a family wedding. When I lived in Texas, I flew all the time but now I don't really fly so often. When I was flying often, it was generally between Texas and St. Louis right after college and early in graduate school and the trips began and ended with intense emotion. I mean, intense. I cried in airports... Ran towards people with the greatest anticipation... Shrieked in joy... Intense. All of that expression and I never gave a second thought to who saw me, what I looked like, none of it. I was in the moment and simply overcome with the emotion that accompanied the hello or the goodbye.

These days my time in airports always seems a little more even-keeled, less emotional. Life is quite different than it was then. Even so, I always think of those times when I am in an airport... I don't know why but i just can't keep those thoughts and memories from resurfacing.

Have you ever looked around an airport though? Like really looked? I think it offers a glimpse of humanity. I think it reveals how similar we all can be.

On this trip, I've seen people crying and I can't help but wonder why their goodbye was so difficult, enough to evoke tears. I've been there, I remember. And then there are people who are ecstatic, emitting pure joy. I've been there too. I've overheard conversations that are deeply personal. And human. And I remember making personal calls in an airport because the timing was right to share something with someone close to me... It didn't matter if I was in an airport or in my own home. And of course, if you spend enough time in an airport, you'll see people extremely stressed out, desperate to know if they will get through security, make their flight, get their baggage back. It can have a way of bring out the worst in people.

It seems useful to open your eyes and see that we are really not so different. After all, haven't we all sprinted through the airport in a desperate attempt to catch our connecting flight?