Notes from the Airport - 6 February 2008 - by Rachel Neer

I wonder sometimes just where it is that I am going. Here I sit at the airport in Dublin. I’m not even staying here in Dublin – I’m just waiting on my next flight. People all around me, both those I know and those I don’t, are passing the time in a variety of ways. Tonya, Caitlyn, and Jeni went to sleep a few hours ago so they could let the rest of our group sleep later. Alicia and Audrey sit to my back, talking about who knows what while doing their reading for class.

A girl at the table across from me is reading from a book about Ireland and writing on the back of a piece of cardboard. I could offer her a sheet of paper from my notebook, but I think that would lessen the meaning of whatever she is writing. An older man and a girl my age, maybe a little older, are chatting away to my right. On occasion I catch a piece of their conversation. It is currently 2:00 A.M. They met at midnight.

Since it is 2:00 in the morning here, I can be confident that everyone here is either coming from or going to someplace. Everyone here has a flight in the early hours of the morning. Everyone here is in a transitional phase – one of travel; one of life.

We all know where we are going. We all know when we are getting there and how. All we can do now, however, is wait. We wait and wonder what our destination will look like once we arrive or how it has changed since our last visit. Even though Harlaxton is becoming more and more of a home for me, I wonder what people and attitudes will be different when I come back, if anything will be at all.

Here’s to 2:00 A.M. thoughts from an airport in a country that may not be foreign to me after all. Here’s to flights that leave the ground at 6:50 in the morning, and here’s to many failed attempts at Sudoku puzzles. Here’s to transitions, everyone…and here’s to the cup of coffee that I will find to give me a boost for the next few hours until I can go to sleep. Here’s to Dublin airport.