Early Morning Pizza at the Airport

People seem different when they’re at the airport. I’m not quite sure if I can say it’s a good different or a bad different, they’re just… different. Different in a way that makes them eat pizza and drink a glass of wine at 10:00AM. Different enough to fall asleep in public and not have any cares about people looking on. Different enough to yell right through complete strangers’ ears to get the attention of their children running amok around baggage claim. Yes, the airport, more than any other public space, changes people’s behavior to be different from the norm.

I think that the strange behavior of people at the airport can be attributed to the liminal nature of the airport. Business women drinking champagne at 9:45AM and construction workers eating burgers in the next restaurant over both find themselves outside of their day to day routine. This departure from their norms accompanied with the stress of being on time for a flight seems to create some sort of confusion in which freedom or perhaps necessity manifest. I don’t know if the man eating pizza and drinking wine early in the morning was craving a nice slice and sauvignon or if he was strapped for time and sat down at the first place that would put a plate in front of him. No matter his reason for pizza and wine before noon, I think I can be pretty certain that such an activity is not part of his normal routine.

I know for certain that I am affected by this airport syndrome. For me, the airport is a send off point that seems to pause everything else that I have going on. I get so wrapped up in the confusion and excitement of perusing monitors to find my gate, playing the game that is airport security and scurrying over to get a breakfast burrito before the doors to my flight are closed. For me, the airport is a break from normal life, it’s like a new and exciting game that I like to play on expert difficulty by cramming in as much as I can before I get on my flight. The airport’s function as a place between places creates a new environment where people, including myself, break from their everyday activities.