Airport Anticipation

Would you look at all the dust around here! It's been AGES!!

Here is what you missed:

I moved into the East Village, met loads of new people and fell in love with my roommates! I have been at Wunderman New York as a planner / social media strategist working on some interesting brands alongside some drop dead talented minds. I will be taking an improv class in the new year with the Upright Citizens Brigade and will be apart of a Google-Agency training course for the changing landscape of SEO marketing and social media... And that's what you missed so far on AD STORM.

Diving right into it - Over the past day or so I have been tackling a creative brief in which airport lounges play a big part and it has gotten me thinking of just how great airports really are. Obviously the imagery of Love Actually might come to mind for most of us and for the other half, the stress of flying. Although, when I look back to the first time I traveled to what I've done so far and to the hopeful future, there is nothing more exciting to me than being able to walk around, sip, drink, smell, shop and people watch within an actual space dedicated to anticipation.

Now I have done quite a bit; the double digit layover which leads to public napping......needless shopping, tipsy chatter...
...the sweaty marathon, and the relaxing first class cabin experience...but I have yet to experience the infamous ... the glorious ... the hailed airport lounge!

At first, my research brought me to the amenities and features offered to the likes of the higher social and financial echelon, in hopes that I too one day would get to smell the same air, sit in the same seats, and taste the same champagne...until I stopped myself. The airport lounge is no more different than the airport itself apart from a few walls (sans the free food, drink and plush seating). In the context I began thinking of what a lounge and airport really stand for isn't as simple as a line between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots'. Status isn't just about access or symbols anymore, it's about what you experience and can share with others that come from these perks and the lack there of.

In my experience so far as one of the 'have-nots' I once spent 3 hours testing out the inclined people-movers at the Amsterdam airport; first standing up-right, then sitting Indian-style and shortly after, laying flat on my back. You might think it weird (It's ok - I kind of do too now thinking back on it) but at that moment, it was my very own experience and I love looking back on it and may sometimes share it regardless of it's lack of a point, plot, or punch line.

Now, I hope it is easier to imagine the experiences had within these lounges aren't too different from ones had outside of them. Be it a first sip of Dom amidst fellow lounge-ians, or the first true Italian cappuccino mustache shoulder to shoulder in the food court; the first time you feel apart of the elite, or the first time you feel just as cultured as anyone next to you in line for the loo (Because it's not just any old loo ... it's the loo in the ___[insert city here]___ airport.)

Take a look at this website where status is no longer just about symbols, recognition or access, but more about the stories that come from them. This is what unites us; the desire to experience something. Sure there are places where status and access matter, but for some reason in an airport, every traveler is there for a single purpose filled with a shared feeling. Anticipation.

I'm now itching to take to the skies once again, in hopes of meeting someone new. :)

Up Up and AWAY!