Why I’m happiest at an airport

It’s not just bc I’m going somewhere — it’s something more subtle

Decades ago, and for a brief period in 2020, air travel was a luxury reserved for the privileged few. These days, air travel is the stuff of the masses. I’ve been at an airport more times than I can count. And yet every single time, as soon as I get beyond security, a wave of childlike excitement and creativity overcomes me.

It’s why I like to be really early — like, ridiculously early — for flights, and why I absolutely love traveling alone. More time to sit at airport bars and cafés, pensively journaling in flowery language, or tapping out an idea for an article that’s struck as I take a first sip of the house red.

So what is it about airports?

Airports are classic examples of liminal spaces. When we’re at an airport, we’re in transit. Neither here nor there. For a brief period, we inhabit the in-between. I suspect it’s this unique energy — I’ve escaped the mundane, I’m in a magical liminal pixieland — that holds exciting potential for my mind to wander and create.

Liminal (adj.): occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold; relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process.