Introduction
It may have been just a cluster of words printed nicely in an almost card board like glossy paper. Numbers were written all over the face of the paper, accompanied by what seems like a cluster of vertical lines, a picture of an aircraft, and your name on it. Without that piece of paper, it is impossible for one to get his way to explore the clouds. What is being described here is the boarding pass. As simple as it is, boarding pass tickets holds a lot of stories of struggle and joy. The face of the boarding pass tells stories no one would easily decipher other than the person bearing it. The focus of this text is to highlight the narrative qualities of a boarding ticket and how such would tell a story that is larger than life. The face of the boarding pass constitutes interesting narratives based on the components found on its surface. Boarding pass functions as a story because the elements and circumstances surrounding its use is in itself a story worth telling. The audience of the boarding pass as well as the publisher is the person booking it because they, and only they know the development of the story. The Publisher is the person who books the ticket and it is also the audience since they are the only people that read into it fully. The ticketing agent prints the ticket but he or she doesn’t write the story. They made the ticket, choosing the time and place, and only they know what it means. The Genre of the boarding pass could be almost any genre. It could be an action movie, a thriller, a crime drama, a comedy, or a romance piece.
The Boarding Pass
In this story, we have Mary as the main character. In this story she is starting a new journey. It all started on the day that Mary booked her flight to Austria. She had visited Austria once before, while studying abroad during a semester at college. She knew she wanted to visit Austria again as it was one of her favorite places she had stayed. She wanted to escape her tired life in the city of New York in the United States. She booked her flight through Austrian Airlines (a trip that would cost her a pretty penny) and to her it was worth it. She was going to see the best place she had ever seen. She made the arrival time as early as possible; so that she could she could start her new journey.
She arrived at the airport, a little earlier than she had liked, but that was just as well. The airport was busy as everybody had his or her own destinations but she was solely focused on her own. She walked up to the ticketing agent for Austria Airlines and pulled out her passport to show them. They asked how many bags she was going to take with her and she replied “One bag”. They checked her passport details and weighed her luggage. They promptly printed it out, and she was on her way to begin her journey. They published her itinerary and her boarding ticket, which was like publishing her story. She passed through security with a breeze. She removed her shoes and took off her coat like she had done a million times before. Mary was well versed in airport security procedures, as her job required her to fly a lot. She knew the steps, and took them carefully. Everybody at this point used mimesis to copy the person in front of him or her.
Mary had some time to kill, so she went to the duty free portion of the airport and shopped around. Most of the things she found useless but there it were. The Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey that reminded Mary of Austria for some reason. She knew she had to get it. It brought back so many memories and the times that they had in that great country. She bought it as a gift for herself. At checkout the cashier asked for her boarding pass, because you can’t shop at duty free without one. She presented it and to the cashier it meant nothing, only that she was flying, but to Mary it was a symbol of hope and a symbol of the journey that she was going to be taking soon. She had thought about buying a carton of American Spirits, her favorite cigarettes, but she was hesitant as smoking is bad for people. But she thought, why not and bought the carton of cigarettes anyways.
The boarding time kept creeping closer and closer for Mary. She knew this moment would come but she didn’t know she would feel the rush of anxiety as every minute passed by. She was closer to boarding the plane, and closer to seeing the love of her life one last time. She was in the 2nd group of boarding, near the back of the airplane, but it didn’t matter to her. She had no preference as to where she would sit and her boarding pass would tell that. They boarded group A, which seemed to take an eternity to Mary, and finally her group came up. She was first in line for Group B, and first in line to start her new adventure.
Finally, after what seemed like ages, she boarding the plane and was on her journey to see Peter. She was seated at the window seat (which she loved so she could see outside whenever she pleased). She had the boarding pass in her hand while the cabin was preparing for departure, and she would not let it go the entire flight. For Mary, this boarding pass had a theme. It was a symbol of the start of a new adventure. She had loved the United States for the time she had been there, but it was time for a new journey. She was seated next to a married couple that looked as though they had been married since the day that they were born. The fit together like two pieces of a puzzle that were never actually cut apart. She began to converse with them and she told them the story of how she first went to Austria, how she became in love it, and how she was going visit that great country again and start a new journey.
Finally, it was time for the plane to take off and Mary buckled her seatbelt nervously. She turned her cell phone off and awaited further instructions. The flight attendant came over the intercom and explained airport procedures and practices should anything go wrong during the flight. Mary didn’t pay attention as she could only think of Austria, glancing down at the boarding pass with every thought. She looked at the ticket for a long time, like a relic into the journey she will begin to take. It almost acts like a crystal ball, as Mary stares at it looking into her future adventure.
She was beginning her journey with this flight and the ticket was her way of getting it started. It wasn’t just a boarding pass, but it was a symbol of a great adventure to come. This is what a boarding pass represents for some people. To Mary, the worldly traveler, it was a way to see that great country again. She kept the boarding pass as a reminder of the life that she was leaving behind, and the new journey she was starting.
Conclusion
The boarding pass goes beyond its purpose as a ticket to get you an access to the gates. It is a piece of paper that inspires the daily loves of the people bearing it. It is a forward step into the journey that a person will have. It is the beginning of an adventure that will be remembered by the person for the rest of their life. It is a piece of paper to everyone else, but to the person holding it, it is a representation of a journey or adventure they will be going on. It is a symbol of the ups and downs of a journey about to begin, and it signifies a change in the person holding the ticket. It tells stories and is more than just text on a piece of paper that let people on an airplane and holds a lot of struggle and joy. It could be the single most important thing in someone’s life.
