One of the places where I love to appreciate the beauty of human life is the airport. So I made it my office sometimes. Humberto Delgado Airport in Lisbon is the closest one to me. I take the metro there, find a seat, open my laptop, and work — while watching the world move around me.
The atmosphere is frantic. There’s a predominance of rushing, of stress anchored to luggage handles, as if anxiety itself has been checked in alongside the suitcase. Endless queues to drop off hold baggage, bags carrying the relics of someone’s journey, inevitably filled with quiet thoughts: What do I do if my bag is over the limit? I should have worn more layers. Will I ever see this suitcase again? A blend of heat, exhaustion, anticipation, and time passing slowly on tired legs.
And underneath all of that: emotion.
When we look at others, we recognise in their eyes, their posture, their words, all the feelings that are part of our own lives too. And in that recognition, there’s some comfort. We are not alone. We are a collective of memories and experiences, repeating like a spiral through the echo of time.
The memories of a trip. The excitement of discovering somewhere new. The thrill of stepping into unknown territory, a change of routine, a chest full of longing, to rediscover oneself, to reunite with friends and family, or to return to a place that still feels like home.
Sitting with my laptop, I can see it all on people’s faces: raw emotions, vibrating from the inside out.
The chaos around me somehow keeps me alive and focused, present in my own world while absorbing everything around me. It feels like standing behind a one-way mirror: hidden, yet collecting every visual and emotional detail.
When we look at others, we recognise in their eyes, their posture, their words, all the feelings that are part of our own lives too. And in that recognition, there’s some comfort. We are not alone. We are a collective of memories and experiences, repeating like a spiral through the echo of time.
To imagine how different and extraordinary each person’s story must be feels like reason enough for every single one of us to write a memoir.
I close my laptop and take the metro home, and for around forty minutes of looking out the window, I’m thinking about all the unspoken stories I watched unfold at the airport. And that fulfills my heart: to live a thousand lives without ever leaving your seat.
This is one of the reasons I created this project: to share a different layer and a different point of view on the places and locations we move through every day.
How do you feel about airports? Can you hold all the feelings in the world inside a single place?
This essay was first published in the Travel Design Edit newsletter on Substack. Read it there or subscribe for free to receive every new edition.
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