Expect The Unexpected
Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., LMFT, CLC, SDS
Let’s talk about carry-ons.
Why do we drag them throughout the airport?
Ok, so one reason is we need a place to hang all the extra junk we shlep or buy in the airport. Why stress our hands and shoulders. There’s a perfectly good floor there to roll everything on.
That handle that comes up is a life saver. It does all the extra work. You just need a little tiny spot to fit some fingers through and you’re on your way.
Carry-ons are probably used primarily, because you just don’t need to take more stuff with you. Therefore, why add the extra time to check in or get out of the airport.
In fact, you may actually really need more stuff, yet are willing to sacrifice taking it, just for faster check-in, and to get to your destination quicker.
So basically, we’d agree, on the back end, it’s for a faster escape on arrival.
So, what I’d like to talk about is what the airlines have started to do now.
You drag that carry on with you with its one allowable extra bag hanging on it and the 20 little bags you acquire at the airport. You eye it like a hawk at every stop, so no one wonders off with it. You traverse the entire airport this way since your gate is always the inevitable, last one possible. And you do so initially over the easily glazed floors; but, then encounter some challenging up ramps, and the difficult carpet they sneak in along the way, and an escalator or two where you must try balancing on those lifting steps. And finally, you make it to your gate. Where if you are lucky, you find a seat and a phone charger outlet. Or worst case, at least a nook to wait for your group to be called.
So what do the airlines do next?
They put on a helpful announcer who comes on and says- “all the seats on the plane have been booked”. Isn’t that what they want and had planned for?
“And therefore, we encourage you to check your bag with us. For free! But don’t worry we will bring it to you when you get to your destination”. “Or you might get it taken from you if we deem it necessary.”
It adds some anxiety, but it could sound sort of fine. Rather than struggling to get it into your overhead bin, they will deal with it, just like the baby carriages they bring right to you when you arrive.
However, that’s not how it works. Their plan is to take it and deliver it to the conveyor belt where you will need to wait till it comes out at your destination.
Seriously, if that was their plan, couldn’t they have told you before you dragged it all the way there.
And after all, you did all that, so you wouldn’t have to wait when you arrived. Or maybe you needed some of that stuff to be on the plane with you.
Now, honestly, did you just go through all that trouble just for them to bring it right back to the very place you avoided to begin with.
What’s with them and the carryon?!
Delays you may expect already?
Turbulence, maybe?!
No charging port?!
No food! No leg room?!
But, do they now have to threaten to take away your little piece of security you brought too?
Yes, sometimes you have to expect the unexpected!
BUT – Don’t they realize that they are the ones who named it – CARRY ON?!
Rivki Rosenwald is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist working with both couples and individuals.
She is a Certified Relationship Counselor. She is a Co-Founder & Creator of an effective Parent Management of Adolescent Years Program. She can be contacted at 917-705-2004 or rivkirosenwald@gmail.com
