People's opinion of airports always seem to be the same: they are an annoying canker sore, an unavoidable inconvenience that makes an exciting trip just a little less enjoyable. They're a headache, a nightmare, a pain in the ass -- and this opinion could ring true with just about everyone you ask. So, apparently, people in general hate airports.

This is news to me. Not because I wasn't aware of this general dislike for the process of air travel, but simply because I don’t share this feeling. I not only can stand being in an airport, but I really like it. No, I love it.

Airports have always been my favorite place. I would start packing a week in advance for vacations, purely because I loved the organizational aspect of traveling, and being completely prepared to wait in the airport and sit through a flight.

I value my beauty sleep above all else, but have no issue cutting my slumber (hibernation, actually) short for a taxi or shuttle to the airport at the crack of dawn.

Cursed red-eyes? Bring that shit. Sign me up, book it, and then book some more. It's way cooler to arrive at an airport ready for bed than just going to sleep normally. I'd much rather wake up, starting my morning in a different country.

Checking bags, going through security, and finding my gate never bothered me. I just saw it as part of an empowering experience of independence and self-sufficiency.

From my point of view, your presence at an airport meant you had your shit together. Be it business people flying to a meeting across the country, or a family going on vacation—even if they were scrambling in the security line, realizing they forgot to lock the front door on the way out—they were there at the airport, and they were getting shit done.

I wanted to have my life together and get things done, and not just in terms of school or work. Travel to me has been just as important, if not more important to me than education and a job—because it is an education, and makes you richer than any career you follow. Traveling feels like progress: It is a way to fill up time you have on earth, and make the most of the time you have here. It's a morbid thought, I know, but prioritizing traveling and seeing the world seems to me like the sole purpose of life.

Airports are the vessel with which I would accomplish my dream in life. All of the hassle that comes with getting to, getting through, and leaving an airport is insignificant background noise if you take into account the amazing opportunity you have in your hands. It's an honor to go somewhere new and see something different. Even if it's only slightly out of my comfort zone, the smallest change or challenge makes me feel like I’m growing.

I think of this opportunity every time I'm stripping in security and waiting endlessly at baggage claim.

I'm lucky to have this opportunity, and to experience the opportunities at hand of all the travelers around me. The magic of an airport doesn't just come from the excitement of vacation so much as being a part of other travelers' stories.

I've watched a family say goodbye to their husband and father in his military uniform, ready to be deployed. I was there when my friends' grandmother said bye to her sister, separated by an ocean and the different lives they chose to lead, they were unsure when they would see each other again. I was lucky to share in an uncle's excitement to meet his nieces and nephews for the first time, and watch the happiness from afar as a couple were reunited.

All of these important emotions, along with my own hello's and goodbye's, have happened at the gates of an airport.

An airport above all else provides perspective—perspective into your own life, perhaps influenced by the lives that are happening around you. Airports are the hustling and bustling excitement of a new adventure, coming home, your life taking a different course, and for that reason, airports are my favorite place to be.