Maneuvering through an airport to get on a flight is a unique and exhausting experience. It involves checking in, checking baggage, passing through security and finding the correct departure gate, all in the shortest amount of time possible. While this process may seem overwhelming, it can be mastered with practice, and the application of some basic tips. It can also be far more comfortable if you have learned to enjoy an adrenalin rush. There is a sense of panic and urgency to the whole process, which can be equated to standing at the end of a very long line for the bathroom. If you aren’t worried at the beginning, you will be by the time you’re nearing your destination.

It all begins at the check-in counter, or, more exactly, the wait for the check-in counter. Here you will find a long line of people, all of whom are repacking bags, filling out luggage tags and checking watches in a flurry of activity. The experience of being surrounded by people frantically doing nothing is very strange. It’s somewhat similar to being in an emergency room waiting area. Everyone is resigned to the fact that they’re in first-come first-serve order, but they’re all silently complaining that their own problem is more important than everyone else’s.

Upon reaching the counter, you will find that the attendant is unwilling to help you unless you first attempt to help yourself. She will point you to a touch screen self-check-in computer. While you watch the person in front of you struggle with the seemingly simple process, you’ll grow impatient. Just like you would with the old lady who can’t get her credit card to scan properly at Shaw’s. You’ll probably grow annoyed with the amount of time that it’s taking this person to do something so simple. This self-righteous annoyance will be dashed into embarrassment a few minutes later, when the person working behind the check-in counter has to lean over the desk and effortlessly check you in. It’s like having the old lady from the grocery store smirk as the cashier takes your own card and slides it themselves, since you just couldn’t get the machine to work. Finally, the check-in clerk will take your bags and weight them, all while complaining to her coworker about people who lock their luggage, against airport protocol. You might suffer again from humiliation, as you have to take your own locks off your suitcase, feeling like a child being scolded in from of the people he has offended.

Once you’ve been relieved of all but your carry-on bags, you’ll be directed to the security line. Again, you’ll be surrounded by panicking people. This time, however, they’re not so much like emergency room patients as a horde of students in line for lunch. While they certainly won’t be as disorderly or nasty as said students, they will retain the same harried air. Like students searching excess pockets for missing lunch money, these people will be mentally going over a list of things they might have accidentally packed. Are knitting needles allowed on airlines? they might be thinking, or: Do I need to take my belt off for the metal detectors?, Did I take my pocketknife out of my bag after that camping trip?, Where’s my passport? They, and you, will be worrying about all of the things that could get you dragged off by airport security, just like one of those students, waiting for a graded test to be passed back, and considering every mistake that she thinks she might have made. If you calm down and focus on getting through the process, it will be much simpler.

The next stop almost feels like coming home after a long day at work, but without the chance to relax. You’ll take off you watch, belt, glasses and jewelry and dump it in a box, followed by your wallet, change, shoes, and any electronics. While your accessories are being examined through an x-ray machine, you will be herded like a sheep through a large plastic frame. If you glance left and right, to where hundreds of other people are doing the same thing, you might have a moment of feeling very small. It’s almost like being a tiny molecule, passing through the outer layer of a cell and into the carefully controlled bubble. Once through, you’ll collect your belongings and redress for another workday.

The final step is often taken at a run. You will never be sure if your watch it on time with the airport clocks, and the blue screens that hang from the ceiling will tell you that your flight is as the gate. You’ll be following signs, also suspended from the ceiling, to find your correct gate. It’s a high-speed scavenger hunt through a maze; a combination of a fifth grade rec camp game and one of those coloring book mazes. If you follow someone else, you’ll end up in the wrong place, but if you don’t, you’ll be afraid of getting lost in the labyrinth. It should be taken under advisement that although it may seem like they do, the signs do not lie. They will eventually lead you to the right place. Once you arrive breathless at the proper place, you’ll discover that they haven’t even started boarding the plane yet. Impatience is the normality at this point, and you will probably spend the next half hour jumping at every intercom announcement, like a misbehaving puppy, waiting to be told off. Once you have finally calmed down enough to stop reacting, your boarding should be called.

Once you’re on the plane, you’ll have made it through the harrowing journey of airport procedure, you still have a ways to go. However, from this point, you will be able to put most of the trouble behind you and focus on your imminent arrival home – or to the place you have selected for your vacation. The trip down the claustrophobic, pipe-like hallway to the plane will feel tame and bearable, because you no longer have to worry about the time constraints or security problems. And once you’re dumping your bags on your bedroom floor, or the bed of your hotel room, you’ll be able to look back at the exhausting airport as being somewhat funny, and not nearly as bad as it could have bee