Portal

Changi Airport, Singapore. October, 2012.

It starts with the first stamp; when you’re finally cleared of all the roadblocks and allowed into your flight. That thumbnail of ink on that small squarish sheet becomes your doorway to unknown, unlimited possibilities.

Then comes the wait, wherein your mind starts to shift. Letting go of walls, taking in the space, pushing back the boundaries. You find your brain ablaze, your senses on the first few revs to overdrive. Suddenly everything is interesting and everyone pops. Why does that guy keep rummaging in his suitcase? Where is that lady going, she’s been walking round and round for half an hour? What are all these people thinking right now? Where would they be in two hours? Ten? Thirty-six?

Finally you take your seat, settle down. If you haven’t yet, then you definitely feel it now, the pull of a destination. You fasten your seatbelt, peruse the magazines, set your cell phone and music player. You build your temporary cocoon, your medium of transition from the comforts of home to the waiting adventures.

Then the plane starts moving, racing up the runway. The speed eludes you, but permeates you all the same. It tucks itself into your cells, and without you noticing your muscles tense, you yourself ready to leap and fly. Your hairs on end, your heart pounding with the rhythm of the concrete beneath. One final tug of gravity, and your sky-bound, gliding in the clouds.

The hours that follow are for coping. Now that you’ve been thrown into the air, your system adapts to the landing. Your brain’s transition is complete, and you’re more than ready to take on what comes next. Your muscles relax, your mind relaxes. Bring it on, you say.

Then you step into the actual story. New land. New faces. New thoughts. New feelings. They all come pouring in, like sunlight on those tall glass windows lining up your path. And you yourself are new, having undergone that mid-air transformation; looking out with new eyes, touching with new skin.

They say the journey is half the destination. I say the journey is a destination all its own.

*Lifted from my Tumblr as part of my “blog centralization process”. Hee.