The Ambivalence of the Airport

One of my favorite movies of all time is The Terminal by Steven Spielberg. When I first watched it, I really did not think anything of it other than it being a really funny and entertaining movie. But after i watched the movie, I looked around for reviews and summaries of the movie to make more sense of the movie (something that I would do for most of the good movies I watch). I read in a review / interview with Steven Spielberg the reason why the airport was such an interesting location in general.

It has to do with the fact that at airports, you are either really happy that someone is coming back from somewhere and / or you haven't seen them in a while. At the same time, you can also be really sad because someone is leaving you and / or you won't be able to see them in a while. I've been to the airport several times and I feel that for me, it's very true. I have felt happiness from people coming back from far away places that I haven't seen in a while; I have also felt sadness from people leaving to far away places, sometimes for a temporary period of time and other times for good.

On June 22, I experienced both emotions at the same time. A good friend of mine who got into Pharmacy at U of T was flying in from Taipei and stopping over on a flight towards Toronto. Some of us had thought that she would be gone for good after the summer she did a work term at a Pharmacy here in BC. I had certainly thought this as well though somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that we would see her - whether we flew over to Toronto, she flew to BC or perhaps meeting somewhere randomly. To feel simultaneously ecstatic and sad in the short 20 - 30 minutes that I saw her, well, it was definitely weird. Certainly I wasn't sad for long as I realized that she had a wonderful opportunity at the U of T; I'm sure I'll see her many more times.