Let me start by stating the following: I know I'm lucky. In twenty-one years worth of air travel, I have never experienced a delay. Not one. I realize that some people may want to smack me whilst reading this declaration (I have heard countless travel horror stories from so many). But I can assure you, my luck changed this weekend. I experienced my first significant travel delay in the form of my flight to Baltimore. And it wasn't pretty.
When you've been fortunate in a certain area of life, it is easy to think "that will never happen." For example, since I've never been delayed before, I don't normally walk into airports thinking, "I hope I'm not delayed." Not even under the dark, threatening skies looming over me on Friday as I rolled through the automatic doors and into the air-conditioning.
Then I saw the board. My 5:45 flight had been delayed until 6:55. No matter, I thought. What's one hour? I have my laptop. There is a beautiful bookstore right over there. No matter.
After perusing said bookstore for over and hour (and I could have easily stayed longer), I went to the board again just to double-check before going through security. I saw my flight number. I blinked. I looked again. But it was true. My flight was delayed another three hours.
You know that split second when you are in the process of receiving bad news? And you think, wow, everything is changing in this split second. I wish I could have been myself three seconds ago when I wasn't being informed of this news. That's how I felt. I knew this meant that I would be missing the first half of my aunt's show (she and her band had a gig that night, and I had yet to ever see her play). I knew that I would miss the big family dinner with my cousins.
But there was nothing I could do about it.
Nothing I could do. After my initial moments of frustration including a frantic call to Mom (who was already in Maryland), I realized that no matter what, the delay would happen. Regardless of my attitude. So I might as well be positive.
This may sound strange, because people don't often think of airports as brimming with good will and calming energy. But there were so many great things going on around me.
I'm sitting in a seat at the gate next to one of only a few coveted wall outlets in the area. A young man in a suit frantically runs towards me, coffee already in hand. "Will you be here for twenty minutes or so?" Yes, I reply. A whole lot longer, actually. "Do you mind if I plug in my iPhone and leave it with you?" No, I don't mind at all. He gives me a smile and says, "It is so wonderful to be in a place where people trust each other." He then walks away to go do whatever he had to do, and I am left with his phone and my thoughts. I didn't have the heart to ask him if he was out of his ever loving mind, or where the heck he came from before to make him feel that way. While I certainly do not distrust people on the whole, I would never leave my expensive electronics with strangers. But hey, if he was paying me a compliment somewhere in there, I'll take it. Sometimes, it is nice to meet someone who is not a cynic.
For the record, the nice man came back for his phone. I did not steal it. He had just come from ROME and thus began a long conversation about my Italy travels, the Red Sox (he's a fan), his accent and how he came to the US (he's from Spain). He showed me a picture of his daughter on his iPhone that I did not steal.
(Speaking of daughters, I have to sidetrack and give major props to the people I saw traveling with children under the age of eight. Let's just say that while I can't wait to have kids someday, I am enjoying my solo travel right now. Because some of those airport child-pushing devices are bigger than me. I now know why long-distance travel in my family ceased exponentially after my brother was born. My parents traveled a lot with me when I was an only child; we would go to Houston, California, etc. to visit family. I guess it's easier when the parents still outnumber the children, although for someone with a strong immune system, I always seemed to pick up pink-eye and ear infections on every trip. But two+ kids is a whole different ball game, as I witnessed. One needs to be fed, the other is throwing a tantrum, and still another is sprinting away with toilet paper stuck to his shoe).
As I am listening to Spanish man tell an amusing story about his daughter that involves silly string and her cat, I can't help but notice that spirits are unusually high at the gate. I am not the only one in an upbeat conversation. The delay seemed to create a united team of sorts. We're all in the same boat, so let's drink our coffee and care or not care together.
And people did rally to the occasion. Almost every flight at Logan was delayed that night due to weather. As we found out, however, our flight crew was not the original crew; they had scrambled a group together so that we would not have to wait even longer. These people had probably already worked a full day, but they were flying us to Baltimore anyway. And I am so thankful.
Annoying doesn't have to be the end of the world. It may just teach you something. There were other family dinners to be had that weekend. And as I hugged and kissed my relatives and had drinks with my cousins and danced through the second half of my aunt's show, the frustrations of the day evaporated into thin air. Everything was fine. Just like it always is. And that's all I can ask for.
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