According to the Air Transport Action Group, the world's airlines carried a total of over 3 billion passengers in 2013. Do you think every single person had an easy, stress-free trip? Probably not. One thing I’ve learnt in my few years of traveling is that going through airports is not as easy as it sounds. Airlines work very hard to make the process very simple and secure but in reality the time you spend in an airport is chaotic.

To begin, let’s talk about stress. This is my number one problem while traveling and judging by all the websites telling us “how to not be stressed while traveling”, I have come to the conclusion that I’m not the only one. When you’re rushing though that airport, millions of things are going through your head; did I bring flip-flops for the shower?  Is my plane early? Is it late? Will I miss my connection? Where the heck is my boarding pass? Oh my gosh I left my toothbrush home! If you could look inside your head during this time it would probably look something like Grand Central Station at rush hour, and that’s hectic! It takes serious proficiency to balance all these thoughts and still make it to your gate on time.

Moving on to the topic of dealing with people. Whether it be the nice guy at security or the person who falls asleep snoring on your shoulder during the flight, you’re going to be interacting with people. You won’t like everyone you meet on your journey and sometimes you even end up not liking the person you’re traveling with. Like Mark Twain said “There ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than by traveling with them”. But this is an annoying con of traveling we can’t avoid, so deal with it, the man beside you may be smelly but if there is will there is way to plug your nose the entire 5 hour flight.

    Screened, carried, rolled, swabbed, searched, packed and forgotten are some of the many things your bags go through while in transit. If you put yourself in your bag’s shoes, you would feel seriously man handled. The first step to traveling with luggage is to check it. You may think that checking your bags makes traveling stress and effort free but statistics posted by Air Travel Consumer Report declare that 4 mishandled bag reports are filed for every 1000 enplaned passengers. The next step is going through security. In all honesty, I always feel a little misread when the screening officer feels the need to rip apart my orderly packing and swab my bag. I guess 15 year old girls are easily confused with substance abusers. There are people in this world who have the particular talent of speed walking through an airport carrying 4 shopping bags, take out, a purse and a small luggage. These people are the Olympians of travel.
   
“Never hurry and never worry” is a famous quote by E.B White but let me tell you traveling is no children’s story. Everything is fast pace and exasperating, most of the people in the airport have places to be and people to meet, it’s like being in the middle of busy sidewalk. If you are walking at a snail pace, people are not afraid to tell you to hurry up. A study done by an insurance company showed that 92% of mistakes are made because of people rushing their work. This can easily be related to travel, expertise is required when it comes to dealing with rushing in an airport, if you’re a rookie in the field you’ll probably end up leaving your boarding pass somewhere or you’ll order a coffee and forget to pick it up. In short, if you’re going to be traveling, be prepared for a complete loss of a sanity.
   
Most of us have a deep down fear of customs, the officers are firm and scary and they ask you intense question like “is your mother stealing you out of the country?” Most of the time you feel like you just got caught by the police and you’re being questioned about a crime you didn’t do. The only skill it takes to make it easily through security is being honest and the ability not nervously say stupid things. For example; “So the prime minister eh, man I hate that guy, he’s bound to get shot”. Unless you want to be included in the 50, 931 people who were denied access into Canada in the past year, it best if you keep the talk short and sweet.

In summary, this is part of the essay where I tell you how to acquire these skills. Mentally prepare yourselves for this trick, it’s the key to making traveling easy. As the famous quote says “practice makes perfect” and there is your answer. There is no way to actually be skilled in travel, but the more you do it the more you become accustomed to the minor setbacks. So there it is kids, get out and travel. As a result, maybe you will become a professional in the art of journey.