Someone praying to become more patient should fly more often. Waiting in airports and airplanes heightens the need for that virtue.
During the Christmas season, a friend complained of the delay caused by having flights to different destinations share only one line at Terminal 2 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. I experienced it, too, but thought that it was peculiar to the period. Early in the year, my son and I had found ourselves lining up for close to an hour behind a large group of foreign students who were asked to move to the group check-in counter only after other passengers fearful of missing their flights started to get agitated and noisy. I did not know that the practice would continue well after the Christmas season ended.
In the past, checking in an hour before my flight meant that I still had time to have coffee and a tough pastry at one of the overpriced coffee shops inside Terminal 2. Since the new system started, I have had to go to the boarding gate immediately after checking in, just moments after I catch my breath from the hassle of removing and putting my shoes back on.
The solution would probably be to go to the airport earlier so I can move at the slowest pace I want. That doesn't work for morning flights though because it would mean getting less than four hours of sleep. I'd rather get more dreaming time than lingering time.
The long waits are not limited to the terminal. Sometimes, passengers have to wait inside the airplane for long periods. Once, my Cebu-Manila flight was delayed because a VIP was arriving and no airplane could take off. We left close to an hour after getting inside the airplane.
Just recently, my one-hour flight from Cebu to Manila took much longer to complete. While the plane was about to take off, someone fell ill and had to disembark from the plane. The plane's tube slot must have been taken by the time the plane reached Manila because we had to take shuttle buses. The plane was a Boeing 747-400 and it was full. Most of the passengers were probably connecting to another flight because a lot of them looked upset. On my way out, I saw a flight attendant in tears being comforted by another flight attendant. I guess a passenger must have yelled at her.
Sometimes, it is luggage one has to wait for. Someone once mistakenly took my bag at the Tagbilaran Airport. My lawyer clothes were inside and I was shortening my life getting stressed at the thought of having to find something to wear for my hearing the next day. Thankfully, airport personnel found a bag left behind and called the number written there. We picked up my bag at someone's house shortly after that. The wife of the person who took my bag by mistake apologized and said that her husband was color-blind. I never met him.
Apart from patience, flying also teaches one to become more tolerant. I've lost track of the times I yelped in pain after someone in line behind me hit me with his or her cart. People seem to have different concepts of personal space in their rush to get to their next destination.
Flying also makes me realize that not everyone understands the concept of a line. My pet peeve is having someone dump his or her belongings on the x-ray machine just when I am about to put my bags on the conveyor belt. A few times, I have fought the urge to throw the things back at the culprit.
Hopefully, I will take these lessons on patience and tolerance seriously. If I don't, an article with this title might just appear in the tabloids: Woman stuffs another passenger inside x-ray machine.