I love traveling by plane. I love it not only because I get to be above the clouds, go to many beautiful places, and share the experience with friends. I also get to go to different airports.
Being a domestic plane traveler (with five domestic plane rides under my belt. I’m still far from being a jet setter.), I have seen and observed an interesting life in the airports.
It is not because of the prestige feeling it gives (like what a plane ad says, every Juan can fly). It is because airports are a place of letting go and coming back; of waiting, and moving on, and more waiting.
Ironic because airlines ask us to be on time (at least two hours for domestic flights, four hours for international flights) only to find out that you might wait for eternity.
Not that I’m complaining. Truth is, I haven’t mastered the art of waiting. For the past flights I had, either I slept, read every reading material or sign posts that my hands and eyes could grab, or checked my back for any celebrity that I might get to see (for instance, I saw singer Christian Bautista and found out we have the same flight. Hands to Heaven played immediately on my mind.)
It is due to the fact that one really has to wait.
In the airport, we wait for the counter of our flights to open. Until then, we sit on one of the benches. Once the counter opens, we fall in line and wait behind yellow line. Then, after all the clearing (and weighing), we walk to our assigned gate, sit again on the benches, and continue to kill time. We stay there, whether the plane arrives on time or gets slightly delayed.
Somehow, we do the same waiting in life. We often wait for opportunities. We wait for the moment, our chance, and our turn.
We wait for our parents to come home or until our children arrive from school. We wait for us to be called for a job we like, get promoted, and eventually retire. We wait for love to come, to endure, or to end. We all wait for someone, something, anything, and anyone.
But I think, the most important thing about waiting is that we are able to stop for a moment and seize (or even endure) the time. I believe that at the end of every waiting, the opportunity, moment, chance, our turn will arrive.
Yes travelers, we will continue to experience waiting in our lifetime. But let us not give up. Let us continue to anticipate. Never cease to be excited, happy, and blessed.
I realized this in the airport, while I wait behind yellow line.
