Category: Uncategorized

What were airports before cell phones and iPods?

As I waited for my first flight of my trip, I asked myself this question. People were hustling to their gates bumping shoulders with one another without a second thought. I wondered what an airport was like before the cell phone. Was it quite as a library or where people actually talking to those around them?

I sat quietly and waited for my plane to board when I realized that for the next month these are my people. I will become a cell phone talking, iPod listening resident of airports across the country.

It was hard for me to watch as people pushed and ran to their gates all around me. I am rarely in a hurry but everyone around me seemed to be in a rush against time. I wondered if everyone was hurrying to catch their planes, get a bite to eat or in a hurry to sit down. It was weird knowing every day I would be in this situation, of rushing to get somewhere and ignoring the existence of residents in my airport.

I don’t want this to happen to me. I want to talk to people around me and relax knowing I am real and everyone around me is real too. Although I will be in and out of airports the next month, I will not become another resident of the cell phone and iPod terminals.

It was while waiting for my first flight, I committed to knowing those around me. It was on my first flight I made my promise real.

Seat 13C waited empty as the plane began to fill. I watched everyone fill the seats around me but 13C remained unfilled. Time began to run out and the number of people standing in line began to thin before the seat was occupied.

I looked up to see a rather large man standing over the empty seat and knew he was going to fill the seat and small parts of mine.

As he squeezed into our seats, I casually said hi because I did not want to overwhelm the first person I would sit next to, there would be future opportunities. He politely returned my greeting and I was ecstatic, my journey had finally begun.

Now in my mind, I figured this first conversation would be revolutionary for both of us. He would be some interesting fellow and I would somehow change his life with my story.

I was being ridiculous.

Nothing special happened during my flight, Steve, the man in seat 13C, and I had several small conversations. He was a pilot for FedEx and had been flying for 16 years. He was interesting to talk to about flying and he enjoyed hearing about my trip. Nothing exciting happened, neither of our lives was changed but it was a conversation that helped get my toes wet.

I don’t know if Steve will remember sitting next to me or even remember another flight of his frequent trips, but I will remember the small conversation I shared with Steve. This was a good test into my ability to talk to someone and hear their story. It wasn’t anything special but exactly what I needed.

Nothing life changing happened on my first flight, but something inside of me changed. I knew I could not become just another member of the flying community, wearing my headphones and talking on my cell phone instead of seeing all the people around me.

My first flight was made complete by a simple conversation and things couldn’t have gone better.

Job hunting sucks.

This sentiment was imprinted in my mind when I was a junior in high school looking for at part time job, applying anywhere from pizza delivery to door-to-door knife salesman. I eventually found a job but the hunting part really did nothing for me. Now, nearly six years later, I find myself in the same situation. Looking for a job, but this time there is a huge difference — I am now an adult. I’m job hunting for the rest of my life essentially, once I get a job I’ll start looking for somewhere else to work. That’s what being a “grown-up” means to me, a recent college grad.

I am in no hurry to start my perpetual job search. I just capped off the best four years of my life — according to every adult I’ve ever met — and do not want to jump into a lifetime of working.

I don’t know what I want to do with my life and am in no hurry to figure that out. One thing I do know, however, is I like to write and tell stories. Thanks to a promotion by JetBlue Airlines, I am going to travel the country and tell stories. I want to write about my experiences and the people I meet on my month long journey to find myself or more likely postpone the inevitable job hunting that I have dreaded since I was 16.

I will be going from Miami to Seattle and everywhere in between (maybe not everywhere jetBlue is pretty exclusive). On this journey, I want to meet people and experience everything the country has to offer and I’m going to try my best to share my experiences with anyone who reads this blog.

I have been given a rare opportunity to travel the country for one month and am going to take it while doing my best to bring you along.