Leaving on a Sunday jet-plane

By Aisling Force

Here I am, at Sky Harbor International Airport, ready to travel down south again, to Latin America, a place I know and love. But this time is going to be different. I am on my way to experience new places, and for that I am excited. I am so accustomed to Costa Rica at this point, after working and living there several times over the last nine years. Just in the last year I have been to Costa Rica twice to complete my applied project for the Master’s in Sustainable Solutions program, where I worked with a company to build a sustainability business plan. Over the next five weeks, I believe I am in store for something quite enlivening, new understandings of how to work in an international context.

I am currently on my way to Mexico. For two weeks, I will be assisting with field research on a project studying water infrastructure and decision-making in Mexico City. This project aims to reduce the city’s vulnerabilities to issues like water scarcity and flooding. I am happy to begin my immersion within Mexico City’s water situation before traveling to Guatemala, where I will also be studying water. But, Guatemala is also going to be different. There I will explore water as it relates to community happiness. All of this is an interesting extension of my applied project research, which involved surveying rafting guests of a Costa Rican tourism company to understand the experiences, motivations and impacts associated with tourist activities. Water is something I am passionate about, and one reason I have been a whitewater rafting guide for the last 12 years.

Something I am not passionate about is air travel. Today the airport is crazy. A situation I am not in the mood for after a restless night, running over again and again in my mind what it is I am forgetting for this trip (for me it’s always something). Exhausted I admitted to myself that I would just have to wait to figure out what that ‘thing’ was. I would know once I needed it.

The craziness of today is not limited to the airport; the whole morning has been chaotic. My morning has been filled with juggling last-minute computer backup, breakfast, nephews, a coffee stop and my sister realizing she didn’t have gas enough to drop me off at the airport. We stopped for gas as I still had the computer on my lap waiting for the hard drive backup process to finish. I warned her about the likelihood of having to deal with some traffic at the airport because of construction at the terminal. I knew this because I had just been to the airport the day before.

Thankfully today there was little traffic and they had finished the construction that had worried me. I arrived to the terminal later than I like to but was grateful that I at least made it and that I didn’t have to run down the street to make my flight. But, there are so many people here today.

The line to check-in and check bags is the longest I have ever seen. “No!” I think to myself. Today may be the day, the day I miss a flight. This line wraps around like a confused snake. Many of its travelers, however, at least find a sense of humor in the ridiculousness. There are five airline workers orchestrating the show and confusion. Relieved, I find the line that moves faster than I had anticipated. However, even though us travelers can be light about the situation, the airline workers and orchestrators are not.

There is one female employee in particular who is not amused this Sunday morning, and I could clearly understand why. I would likely not enjoy my job at this moment either. She is managing my check-in line, the slowest line of them all, and I wonder if this has something to do with her attitude. Finally, when I arrive at the counter, I greet her nicely and comment on the craziness of this Sunday morning. She is still not amused. After leaving the counter, I think to myself she is going to misplace my bag and that today might be the day my luggage doesn’t arrive with me. Being superstitious, I search for wood to knock on in my favor, but find none and need to move to the security-screening checkpoint anyways.

Once I arrive to the gate for my flight, I find a place to relax and continue to take care of the last minute tasks I am trying to check off my to-do list. I quickly open my computer and think, “What’s first?” I contact my bank to tell them that I am leaving for six weeks – “yes done, one less thing.” I check my email once more and finish saving important documents.

After that, it’s basically time to leave. Time for Mexico and fieldwork. It’s not even time for Guatemala. That’s still two weeks away. But it feels great to get the Latin American trip started and to be immersed in the rich culture and vibe before starting the Guatemala study abroad program and learning more about happiness and sustainability. I just hope that my next journey to and experience at the airport is less chaotic.