As I gaze around at the faces of the people waiting to board my same flight, I see and hear a wide range of emotions. The majority of these faces, however, show me the same expression: boredom, mild exhaustion and semi-irritation all rolled into a wonderful ball I call air-travel syndrome.
Some people have taken the chance and haphazardly folded up their jackets to tuck under their heads and take a quick nap as they wait, but others pop in their earbuds or whip out a book to pass the time as they momentarily cut themselves off from the outside world and fall into their own.
As an apt people-watcher, I observe the things that strangers do. I interpret actions, read expressions, and try to decipher emotions from the signs they outwardly send. Sometimes it's easy to tell that the girl sitting across from me is talking to her significant other by the way she twirls thin strands of hair around her finger, or how she smiles as she talks to him for countless minutes. Other times it's hard to tell by the overall expressionless faces; curveless mouths and subtle changes in the distance from the eyebrows to the eyelids make these people difficult to figure out.
Then the plane begins to board and this announcement over the intercom makes people come alive. Sleeping teens rise from their makeshift bench-beds and young boys pack up and put away their electronic games. Everyone is suddenly awake and alert; ready.
Ready to get to their desired destination.
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