The Departures Board

As I travelled through Chicago’s O’Hare Airport before sunrise, I couldn’t help but notice the people rushing to get where they were going.

Some people were walking swiftly, hoping not to miss a connecting flight but still glancing at their phones and dodging everything in their path.

When I reached my departure gate, I sat down and quietly scanned the area.

There was the mother holding her young child still in his cartoon-themed pajamas.

There were a couple of business people checking emails and talking a little too loudly about margins and P&L statements.

There was an older couple who seemed unsure of what to do next, quietly asking each other what the gate attendant had said after each announcement.

I glanced at the gate across the aisle from ours, and similar scenes were playing out there.

And then there was the departures board between the two gates where people stopped to check the status of their flights, waiting for permission to begin the next chapter of their journey.

Then I started to think. The departures board never really tells the whole story. It lists where the people are going, never why.

Maybe they are travelling for:

A dream job.

A loved one’s wedding.

A funeral.

A cancer consultation.

A bucket-list vacation.

Or maybe nothing more than someone hoping a different city might become a different life.

Life is like that. We usually see the destinations but rarely see the journeys.

A young man, maybe 18 or so, sat beside me and we started talking. He told me he lived with his mother in Illinois and was going to visit his father in Virginia.  He worked in accounts receivable for a food distributor but was taking classes at night. His goal was to become a sales manager - not because of the title, but because he wanted to travel. As he talked, I realized he wasn't just traveling to Virginia. He was already traveling toward the life he hoped to build.

He asked if I was on LinkedIn.

Why?

Because life is weird.

Two strangers.

One gate.

One conversation.

Never would have happened otherwise.

Finally, our flight started boarding. People hurried to gather suitcases, neck pillows and backpacks. For a moment, no one goes anywhere. They simply stand. Waiting for their group to be called. Sometimes life feels like that too.

I said goodbye to my young friend and wondered what the future would be like for him. How would his journey go? Would he ever reach out to me via LinkedIn?

We are all going somewhere. Or at least we hope we are.

We spend much of our lives waiting - for our turn, our opportunity, our next chapter, or our group to be called.

Maybe the real journey begins long before we ever board the plane.

We are all…still searching.