Layover

Some people get stressed out with the idea of traveling. After all, there are the bags to pack, the flights to catch, and if you are someone like me, there is the money to spend on food along the way, inevitably. For others, it may be the endless moments spent in waiting that draws out the day, the ennui becoming progressively too much to bear. There is of course the terminal side waiting prior to boarding, where it always strikes me as odd that special privileges still exist for different boarding classes in this day in age. I can only justifiably understand the reasoning for mothers traveling with the little ones. But eventually we all board, even those in boarding class C. But there is more waiting. First, an anxious anticipation of take-off drawn out impossibly long by the slow runway taxi-ing. Not to mention the eternal thumb-twiddling sitting and waiting on the actual plane flight, which of course includes wondering when the flight attendant is going to come around with the cart to offer you honey-roasted peanuts and a drink of choice. Furthermore, there is also the eager anticipation of touchdown landing prolonged by the half-hour long final approach. And then the painstaking wait to deplane tag-teamed by more waiting at the mercy of the slowly snaking baggage carousel, both brutal reminders of the constant, unrelenting tick of time. Unchanging irregardless of your status of arrival.

But amidst all the time I've had to spend waiting, presently slouched in one of those sleek looking, but deceivingly uncomfortable, interconnected airport chairs, I have found an activity out of observing human behavior and interaction, or more simply called, people watching. The sixty something year old woman sitting across from me is reading the latest popular fiction bestseller, apparently too enthralled by the plot to notice the fledgling mother disciplining her son in the adjacent seat to her right, or to care to eavesdrop in the conversation of the man in the black suit who is broadcasting details of business carelessly to the crowd because of Bluetooth, or to notice that I have made myself privy to it all. In these moments, it always humbles me to think that there are so many people in this world, each going about his or her own separate way, each living one unique, unwritten life, just coming and going, to and fro, doing their own thing by living a life thats never been lived before. And how I have gotten so caught up in my own life to care or notice that all of these people I'm currently staring at now all are important players in their own play of life. Each one a lead actor, a protagonist with a different plot to play, different conflicts to face, and different places to go, be it happy or not. And I am lucky to be watching just one scene play out before my eyes. Alright, thats enough sitting. Enough waiting. Enough thinking for now. I think its time to knock back a couple brews at the nearest airport lounge.