Strange World!
By Dan Brent, Citibank

I expect it happens to all of us. Every once in a while, I find myself in a situation where things seem out of place. It’s like a sudden and unexpected trip with Alice into Wonderland.

I do a lot of business traveling. Recently I had a flight home from Philadelphia to Rochester, N.Y. It’s a one hour trip – short by any air travel standard. The flight down to Philadelphia usually deplanes in Concourse F, which, as near as I can figure, is not too far from Valley Forge. They run a bus from Concourse F to take you to the real terminal. On this particular return trip, my departure gate was listed as A-22. I thought little of it until I’d passed Security and started to follow the Concourse A signs. The trip went on and on and on, like the Boston Marathon but without the stopwatch.

Finally, reaching Concourse A, I entered a different world. This is, it develops, the international concourse in Philadelphia. When they designed it, someone must have been trying to impress someone. The gate areas are enormous and lavishly carpeted. The ceilings vault upward to a twenty-foot high glass clear story that runs the length of the concourse above the wide terrazzo and marble passenger walkway. Separate glassed-in corridors allow deplaning passengers to reach the Customs areas in style. The lighting is inordinately bright and the concourse walkway houses a collection of gift shops, restaurants, currency exchange services, and duty-free stores.

Sure enough, Gate A-22 was posted for Rochester, N.Y.

I called my wife on the cell phone. “Did Rochester secede from the Union while I was here?” She assured me that it had not. So I settled in to absorb the setting. Across from us was the gate for Munich. Adjacent gates were hosting travelers bound for London, Madrid, Manchester (U.K.), St. Petersburg (Russia), Paris, Frankfort.... and, would you believe, Raleigh-Durham. Go figure.

The boarding announcements were in a United Nations variety of languages. And there sat little old me – I speak English only – headed to Rochester, N.Y. It reminded me of the time on Johnny Carson’s old Tonight show when George Gobel made an appearance very near the end of the show. He sat down next to Bob Hope and Dean Martin who had been uproarious together up until then. George greeted them. He then turned to Carson and said, “Did you ever get the feeling that all of life is a tuxedo and you’re a pair of brown shoes?”

The saying goes that when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. There also ought to be a saying that goes, “When life gives you lemonade, enjoy!”

I was sharing my thoughts about this experience with one of my twenty-something daughters. Her reaction was interesting. She said, “Is there at least a little clue in your experience about what it’s like for a freshman to deal with the strange routines of college and college life?” And she added, “Foreign is a good operative word for that situation.” It struck me as a good insight. It’s all very nice and very exciting. But, truth to tell, it’s a bit intimidating too!

Dan Brent is a Professional Development Officer with Citibank. He frequently makes seminar presentations to Financial Aid Office people.