10.17.25: Airport Observations

Airports are equalizers. No matter how important you think you are, you’re still barefoot in security, fumbling with a laptop. Everyone is reduced to a traveler, half-tired and half-annoyed, hunting for power outlets like cavemen with fire. My favorite part is the gate crowd, thirty people standing in line twenty minutes before boarding, even though we all have assigned seats. It’s irrational, yet deeply human. We want to feel ahead, even if it makes no difference. The truth is, airports expose us. Stripped of comfort and routine, we’re just a species of impatient mammals trying to get somewhere else.