Traveling Kindness

So yes, everyone knows I traveled last weekend. From Thursday to Sunday, I was in three different airports, on four different planes and sat next to five different people on those planes.

I also met several people at each of the airports I passed through.

And…get this, security in both the Toledo airport and the Orlando airport was easy. The workers were kind, patient people. To me, at least.

When I arrived at the Toledo airport at about 5:45am on Thursday morning, security wasn’t open yet. Heck, even the American Airlines counter wasn’t open. So I settled in to wait. The woman sitting next to where I waited said something about us passengers getting there before security.

I laughed and there we went. She was going to Chicago for just the day. She was attending a conference. She was also a breast cancer survivor with a 14 year old daughter named Samantha.

Yes, we chatted. It was a lovely way to pass the minutes before we could check in and go to through security and on to our gate.

On the way through security, I pulled my baggy of travel-sized shampoos from a side pocket of my bag and the security officer complimented my amazing travel savvy. I thanked him and reported that I travel a whole of once a year. He suggested I give travel tips to more frequent fliers. I was appropriately flattered.

On the flight from Toledo to Chicago I sat next to a woman who has three daughters. They are 10 years old, 8 years old and ten and a half months old. She was also only going to Chicago for the day for a work event. She hates flying too.

During my two hours layover in Chicago, I sat near a woman who was traveling with her daughter and two grandchildren. They were going to Orlando for the weekend too. It would be the children’s first visit to Disney World. The trip had been planned by the daughter (mom of the kids) and the woman’s late husband. They were excited and yet sad at the same time. He’d died just a couple of months after planning the trip with his daughter.

The plane boarded and I found myself seated in a window seat with a young couple in the other two seats in the row. They were preparing to watch Contagion on a laptop. I promised them I’d only have to get up once to use the restroom.

They laughed good-naturedly and told me it wasn’t a big deal.

Then I fell asleep and slept through the drink service and both parties of the couple getting up (separately.) I did end up having to make the move just before we started the descent into Orlando airspace.

The weekend flew by and before I knew it, I was on a shuttle heading back to the airport in Orlando. I sat next to two ladies who’d been in town to attend a wedding.

At the airport, I was delighted to find that the flight I thought left at 1:30 actually left at 2:45. Yes, yes, that meant I could have spent another hour with the friends I’d just spent the weekend with but…I hate to be late so to find out I was extra early just made my flipping day.

Onward through security. The line I chose moved quickly. Once I placed all my things on the conveyor belt, the security officer in charge of my line saw my confusion on where to go next and said quite pleasantly, “Just follow your shoes, Love.” How very kind was that? I mean, seriously?

The wait, while longer than I’d expected, was pleasant enough. I ate a wrap, drank a Dr. Pepper, read a book, watched people coming and going. I used the bathroom a couple of times and finally, we boarded.

I sat in the center seat this time. I could tell the women I sat between weren’t really going to be talkers, so I settled in, read my book and dozed a few times during the two and a half hour flight.

As we waited on the runway to move to our gate, the girl in the aisle seat and I talked a little about our final destinations.

Then we were done and I headed to my final gate to wait the FOUR HOURS until my next (last, wheeee!) flight left.

I got something to eat from McD’s, I bought something else to read and I found a seat in a corner at the gate where we’d eventually leave.

The lady in the seat a few down from my own wore a hard brace type thing on her ankle. After about an hour of sitting, she asked me if she could leave her larger bag on the seat that separated us. She said she couldn’t carry it all and would be back soon.

And that started a bit of a co-op between us. She’d watch my big, heavy bag while I went to the restroom (right around the corner, bonus!) and I’d watch her bag while she want to get a bagel, hoping to settle her stomach. She was coming home from a trip to China with her Chamber of Commerce and something about the trip had given her an upset stomach. She talked on her phone quite a bit but between calls, we discussed my conference, her trip and both of our desires to be home and done with travel.

Finally! We were called to board.

And as I made my way down the aisle toward seat 8C, I was stunned to see that seat 8B was occupied by Spock’s sister.

Let me state right here that I totally mean that as a compliment. She was a lovely woman. She was kind, she was talkative, she was stylish and she could totally have played Leonard Nemoy’s version of Spock’s sister. Perhaps not so much Zac Q’s version of Spock, though.

In short, she was AWESOME and I kind of wish that I could be her friend forever, even though she was about twelve years older than I am and way, way cooler.

I arrived home at 12:15. The girls were asleep on a mat on the living room floor. Tom was waiting up for me. We were glad to see each other. We were tired and I needed to brush my teeth.

Olivia cried just a little when she saw me the next morning and that broke my heart even as I laughed just a little, hugging her a bit tighter. Alyssa woke up to my alarm and broke into a giant grin just before we hugged tight.

Travel was nice. The experience of traveling reaffirmed my belief that most people are good. It also reminded me that sometimes, if you speak first, you’ll find that others are just waiting for an opening. This, coming from a self-admitted introvert, it a big deal. It’s taken me almost 42 years to be comfortable enough in my own voice, my own skin, my own intuition to be willing to ask that first question, smile that first smile and be the one to break the silence. And when it’s not well received? I just stop talking, no hard feelings. Sometimes, we just want to be left alone. But more often? We’re just waiting for a friendly face, an opening question, a chance to make a new friend.

But in the end it really, truly is so good to be home.