Evolving

Good morning Baby Dino readers.  Tis been too long.

So for those of you who read us, you know I often tie my experiences with aviation into my thoughts on fitness.  Like my friend Dr. J, who is also a pilot, albeit one who does it for fun, we both see metaphors in flying that we do in staying healthy and being fit.

A lot has changed in the last year, and in the last 6 months especially.  I became Ironman and since then have been taking it easy, relaxing, and fully embracing being a captain for my airline.  Now it's time to get back on the horse, start running again, and return to the fit ways of before.  I was walking through the Kansas City airport yesterday and I suddenly stopped and realized change has happened at this airport.  I'll go through it.

Back in 2010, when I transferred from Lynx, I did quite a bit of flying out of MCI for Frontier on the Embraer 170/190.  In an odd way, that airport became like a 2nd home.  I got to know it.  Walked around the terminals a lot, walked around the outside a lot, and really embraced it as a good airport.  Even in transferring bases, bouncing around the Republic system, I always seemed to touch the Kansas City airport.  Back then, Frontier had a bunch of gates and was a strong presence.  I flew to great cities out of there like Seattle, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Orlando, New York, and Washington DC.

In 2012/2013, I overnighted here 3-4 times a month.  It seemed I was constantly in Kansas City, and I loved being here.  The airport, old as it is, became familiar.  That's the word I would use.  Familiar.  

Yesterday was the first time I really walked around the terminal since I last flew here on a 190, and the changes were obvious.  One of the terminals is completely shut down.  US Airways and United have moved over to the C terminal, where Frontier was once its dominating presence.  Now Frontier is a ghost of itself, operating out of two gates, and only serving Denver.  The DC service ends February 1st, and in an odd way, to me, it feels like the end of an era.  

So I was thinking yesterday about how much has changed at the Kansas City airport, and how much I've changed as a result.  Back in 2010, I was younger, a lot angrier about my job situation, bitter comes to mind.  Now, I'd argue I'm a lot more grown up about things.  I take my job much more seriously.  I see things a bit differently now.  This is what happens when we evolve.  When we grow.  We are able to take stock of situations differently, to do different evaluations of what is around us.  

An airport allowed me to take some stock yesterday.