Airports = Gateways

This year alone, I have been to the airport more than 5 times, the most times I have been to the airport in any given year. I also begin to realize that with each trip I make to the airport, the longing in me to go abroad deepens; the longing in me to visit my home in Temora, the longing to see other places that I can only see in the confines of my home in front of the idiot box, the longing to see other cultures, taste other food, smell and touch foreign things.. All these wants and longings stir in my heart restlessly like a lion pacing in its cage hoping for its return to the wild.

Every time I wave a friend off, I wonder when it would be my turn to go. My turn to heave my bags on the weighing scale to see if I have exceeded the baggage limit, when it is my turn to go down the escalators and wave goodbye to my family and friends. I know that I am one of those lucky ones that have had the opportunity to even get on an aeroplane and visited another foreign country. Yes, don’t get me wrong I am blessed and thankful. However, now that I know that there are such wonderful things abroad, it only increases my longing and wants to fly away to some distant country.

Its also true when they say that airports are gateways not only to another country but to another life. I believe that the moment you set foot in the aeroplane, your life changes and you are never the same again. Maybe this is just some silly little belief of mine, but how can you not change when you are away from home, away on a journey, on an adventure? Perhaps if you are going for a business trip, it is different, but it still does change your life, you could either get more clients, make that deal or not and etc. Even if you go for a family trip, your life still will change. You get to spend more time with your folks and it will make you love them or in some cases despise them more. Invariably, going abroad will change you. Sure doing everyday things might change your life as well, but I take airports to be some kind of symbol of change.

I see my friends going aboard to study and I wonder why am I not one of them. When I see friends going for vacations or for jobs that they have abroad, again I wonder why not me? After some time of pondering and wondering and pondering again and again over and over about why it isn’t me getting on the plane, I realized that perhaps it is not my time yet. Perhaps one day soon, I will be that one boarding the plane and waving to goodbye to my friends with weepy eyes but with a wide smile and much joy in my heart. So now, I guess I have convinced myself (for now) that my time will come soon.. So yeah.. I will be leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again.. (Still trying to convince myself) .And for those lucky ones that get to go on aeroplanes a lot and who will be going abroad or are abroad studying, do enjoy yourself twice fold for me and consider yourself very blessed.