(Airport Anxiety)
It is never a full-blown one. It is the one which sits just under the skin and simmers like a good Turkish coffee.
It can be seen on almost everyone’s faces, some of them hide it by eating overpriced food at terminal’s bars and coffee shops, others buy stuff they don’t really need. Macho types start drinking beer and stronger beverages.
Tobacco addicts go slightly mental within themselves as they have to fight more than one anxiety — the anxiety of not smoking and of being many hours away from their next smoke.
Young parents go through “make or break” experience, AA can literally break their young, already fragile families.
Only kids don’t really care about it, they are happy, travelling is a huge adventure for them. Older kids know (if they are clever enough) that they can manipulate their parents into buying stuff which they would never buy otherwise.
And then there are those who are on the edge of a nervous breakdown, they are like barrels of gun powder waiting to explode. They know that they must keep together but the same time everything (it seems) works against them, too hot coffee served, not fresh enough sandwich, some annoying child demanding some colourful plastic from their parents to buy.
Then, after queuing up they end up on the plane but it doesn’t release the pressure as there will be a torturous taking off, turbulence and hours of boredom.
They watch films, read books, play games but the annoying feeling of dread never leaves their minds. And then there is landing and passport control.
Businesses and marketers know this state of mind and exploit this very well.
They will sell you anything just to take a nervous edge of AA sufferers, be it overpriced watch in duty-free, separate lounge at the airport or even business class.
Still, AA won’t go away.
You see, we are land animals we are not meant to fly.
