I'm an Airport Celebrity. It Can Happen to You

     Photo Credit: Victoria Clemmons

     A couple weeks back, I did something that I've never done before. It was exhilarating. And yes, I had a sweat mustache while doing it. At the time, my thoughts were racing. But there was no turning back.

     Compounded with the pressure of time, I also had the intent stares from a crowd of people burning a hole through my entire being.

     What was this event, you ask? Oh, I just simply boarded a plane...

     Digital style.

     Boom.

     Oh, you don't know what that means?

     No boarding pass, baby. Yeah, I do my part to help the planet.

     Instead of going through airport security with a paper boarding pass, which is the standard, when reaching airport security I simply whipped out my iPhone, which had a fancy dancy coded hieroglyphic on its screen. That special hieroglyphic, of which I received 24 hours before I actually even stepped foot into the airport, translated into my official boarding pass and allowed me to enter airport security, walk straight to my gate, and board my flight.

     So when I arrived at the security check point--after the woman that struggled to hand over her semi-soggy boarding pass (Due to her sweaty palms and painful multitasking of holding an obscene amount of luggage) I was nervous.

     I had never done this before. If this went wrong or delayed the disgruntled passengers behind me, there could have been an airport scene.

     So when I told the airline security checkpoint person that I had a digital boarding pass, she looked confused. All eyes were on me. I was starting to sweat a little.The passengers eyes behind me were burning the back of my neck.

     But then, the airline security person looked at me and said, "Oh, you get to scan it right here." And in that moment, I immediately recognized a small electronic scanner, that I could have sworn just appeared out of no where. Needless to say, I was feeling very Bourne Identity up in that piece.

     And then...as if in slow motion, I digitally scanned my boarding pass from my iPhone. I was given the green light. I could feel the wide-eyes of the audience behind me. And with a little bit of sweat above my upper lip, I just walked through towards my gate like a rockstar.

Wisdom's Knocking:

Don't be afraid to try something new.