I love airports. I’m not sure if it’s the feeling of being in an exclusive mini-city, the thousands of storylines from the people around you, or the overpriced coffee, but it’s kind of fun being in an airport (once you’re past security).
Until I got stuck in one overnight.
I usually wouldn’t spend money on a plane ticket for a hybrid meeting, but I got excited about seeing everyone in person. Unfortunately, my little adventure resulted in a missed connection, a flight back home, and calling into the meeting remotely anyways.
No good deed goes unpunished, I guess.
My flight from Minneapolis to Indianapolis had a connection in Chicago. The departure from MSP was late. Not a big deal until our gate was occupied by another airline. When we finally parked, there were 10 minutes until my next flight’s scheduled takeoff, and I wasn’t convinced I could make it across the entire terminal in time.
I wasn’t alone.
When the cabin lights came on, a few people stood up and requested to move to the front of the plane to meet their extremely important connection.
This was a silly request for two reasons:
- Most of the passengers were already late for their next flight
- It’s impossible to allow others to pass you on an airplane in the aisle without teleporting
They awkwardly waited with urgency while the overhead bins were unloaded.
I took off in a literal sprint toward the other terminal for my connecting flight (a pattern I find myself in at O’Hare for some reason). When I reached the door 2 minutes after the departure time, the waiting area was empty except for two smiling workers behind the desk.
“You can make alternate arrangements with our service desk [on the other side of the airport]”.
Inconvenient, but out of my control.
My meeting wasn’t until the following day at 10 AM, so my options were limited, but flexible. I didn’t much care how or when I got to Indy as long as I could get to the meeting before it started.
In the service line, I waited behind a lot of familiar faces from my MSP flight. As I got closer, a couple in front of me approached the desk, steaming mad.
“”You have no idea how terrible this is! My parents and grandparents were pilots and they would have never allowed this to happen!”
The customer service desk dug their heels in. Nobody likes to be yelled at. Faces were turning red. Security began to take notice. Their quarrel continued as I approached the next available agent.
Unfortunately, the next flight would land after my meeting was over and about 1 hour before my departure from Indianapolis to come home. I would have literally landed in Indianapolis and immediately boarded my flight home.
My new strategy was to fly home on a different airline at 5 AM the next day and catch the meeting remotely.
With 8 hours to go, I accepted my fate and began my quest for food and ideas to pass the time until I could leave. Little did I know, my quiet night alone in an airport taught me a few lessons:
You can learn a lot from stress
The couple ahead of me in the service line was clearly upset.
In a moment of stress, their worst side came out. Flooded with emotion, they unleashed everything they had on the service agent who carried himself with poise and confidence.
Clearly not his first rodeo with an upset customer.
I’m not defending the airline here: they made a big mistake handling our schedules. But once a mistake or inconvenience happens, it’s more productive to operate as a problem solver and move forward than react as a provocateur of past mistakes.
Customer service agents, hospitality staff, and service workers are people doing their best to get by and they usually have all the leverage.
Customer service is a two-way street, and nobody is entitled to anything.
I loved seeing how different people from the flight handled our annoying situation. For every loud rhino in line, there were plenty of others that handled their situation with grace and understanding.
Same situation. Different reactions. Attitude makes all the difference.
At the end of the day, we have limited control over most of our environment. Late flights. The airline’s response. But you always have your attitude. How you deliver a message. What you allow to ruin or make your day.
I missed my flight, but my experience with the customer service agent was pleasant. My ability to remain calm and collected in high-pressure situations is a strength, but also a weakness since I risk downplaying the severity of bad things.
Chaotic situations are an excellent opportunity to learn how stress affects your psyche.
Nobody learned great life lessons sitting in their living room: life is meant to be lived and experienced. Growth requires more than thinking and reading – it requires saying yes to things and going on adventures every once in a while. Even if you miss the meeting.
Cycles and rhythms are powerful and natural
Chicago’s O’Hare International airport is the fourth busiest airport in the United States and I was nearly alone in one of its terminals.
Besides one convenience store, everything shut down. The few people spending the night with me were usually laying down with a blanket over their head.
It was quiet.
As someone that loves large, quiet, empty spaces, the airport drew me into an almost dreamlike space. I explored a newly renovated area with a massive ceiling and futuristic support beams. During the night I would sit in awe that this quiet urban oasis would be packed with excited travelers in a few hours, only to return again to serenity.
When you’re in the thick of the day, surrounded by hustle and bustle, it’s hard to imagine a space like that is every asleep – and here I was.
I passed a man with headphones riding a floor mop machine. This was his hour. In a way, I was a little jealous that he has all this time to sit, think, and clean without the busyness of the day. Sure, he has a LOT of floor space to clean, but he doesn’t have to work around anyone, answer emails, or inconvenience other people to get his job done.
Busy-quiet cycles are important.
When the airport is awake, operating, and full of travelers, a lot is getting done. People are moving around, the storefronts are selling greasy airport food, and people who don’t normally read are optimistically buying books to read on the airplane.
The activity is also creating a mess.
Stores run at capacity, floors and bathrooms get dirty, and workers run out of steam. The cycle brings restoration. It creates space to take care of itself. The bustling building slows to a crawl at night to make sure it’s ready for the sprinting required by the next day.
We’re the same way.
If we operate at capacity for too long we’ll eventually burn out, overreact, and make mistakes. Hustle has a time and place, but so does recovery. We all need time to clean the cobwebs and reset.
The world is a massive place
I ended up transferring terminals for my flight home and had to go through security again.
Given the hour, I figured it would be quick since the airport was quiet, but I was surprised to find hundreds of people in line ahead of me – and they all spoke Spanish! Apparently there were two large flights headed to Guadalajara and Mexico City. After their flights left, the airport got extremely quiet.
Their presence was inspirational: the world is such a big place.
For those of you who don’t know, I run a candle making education blog. For a reason I cannot explain, it receives almost 2,000 daily visitors. How many people are there in the world that my niche blog manages to be found by 2,000 people every day!?
The world is bigger than you think.
Every single person in the terminal has a story and history. They’re going home to a place with even more stories. Every time I think about how hard it might be to find customers or a new job, I have to remind myself how big the world is. I’m guilty of putting the world inside a picture frame shaped like my backyard, but there are 8 BILLION other people on this planet, each with a unique story.
The scale of our planet means our opportunities are endless.
Our growing world is more connected than ever before, which means the opportunities available to us are magnitudes greater than any generation has ever had before. The only excuses we have for not seizing them are the barriers we put in front of ourselves.
It’s humbling, inspiring, exciting, and a bit scary.
Oh, and I made it home in time to call into my meeting!