Currently, I’m chez l’aéroport. Which is grammatically incorrect, but I felt like using “chez”. Disregard for grammatical errors, this goes in English, too.

I find airports to be one of the best people watching places. I always start imagining and making up stories to where everyone is off to, or coming from, or to whom they’re flying to and for what reason.

Except, what I don’t get is why are airports so frantic? Why all this rush rush rush rush ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuush? Have you noticed that? I found myself, post security check, hauling ass, when I suddenly stopped.

I’m in no competition here. There’s no race to see who makes it to their gate first. No medals and awards to be had, yet, I still had gotten caught up in that frenzy.

I get that this is sometimes necessary — afterall, there are these things called planes to catch and connections to meet. But I’m not willing to believe that 85% of airport travelers are in that big of a damn hurry. Which is about the percentage of travelers that I think are in some sort of Olympic Airport Training Program.

So, I purposely started walking slower. I let my fellow People pass me. Some annoyed I wasn’t keeping pace. I felt very uncomfortable at first. Could People get around me? Was I somehow holding someone up? But, again, to what and to whose imaginary Airport standard was I holding myself to?

The slower I walked, the more relaxed and liberated I felt. It’s easy to be on autopilot and go with the flow of the crowd. Taking a moment to pause in the midst of frantic, is quite liberating.

It’s calming to be sitting now. I’m watching. I’m writing. I’m long deep breathing. And things feel pretty damn good.

I’m even holding it together rather well that another Maman parting was had. I’ll see her in eight days. I think I can make it, don’t you?

But it is a little bittersweet, each time I leave here. I’m not saying goodbye to Maman. There is no such thing for us. I’m saying goodbye, still trying to make peace with my home, my identity and previous life. Those are the things that take a little longer for me.

Let’s hope this flight is on time. Because I’m ready to return to this life. It’s pretty damn awesome.