Airport search worth trouble

So far this year I have been on three different trips, all of which have required multiple airlines and airplanes. While I am not a Platinum Rewards businesswoman jet-setting to Chicago or New York, I would venture to say that I probably travel more often than the average person.

However, regardless of frequents to various airports, one thing never changes: my encounter with the security checkpoint.

For whatever reason, I am literally chosen for a random search nine times out of 10. “Miss, would you mind stepping aside for a routine search?” And into the glass-enclosed area I go.

Perhaps I happen to always be the (for example) 15th person passing through, if that is the system the airport uses. Maybe as a blonde, “American-looking” young female, I prove the exception to the rule – the poster child of non-racial profiling at the airport.

This whole Stephanie-always-getting-randomly-searched-at-the-airport thing has become very funny to my family and friends, albeit annoying for me.

Recently when traveling, I was subject to yet another random search.

After being pulled aside and having a woman wave a wand around me, my laptop was brought to me as a guard asked if “I had recently had new hardware installed.” I replied that I had.

My computer was then turned on and looked at to make sure there was nothing out of the ordinary on it. Granted, I didn’t have anything to be too embarrassed about, but after a few minutes I was ready to go to the magazine stand (to buy the latest Cosmo and a pack of M&M’s, naturally) and board my flight.

As my impatience grew, I started thinking about all of the times I had been randomly searched. I became angry at the fact that I was being detained as everyone else passed through security.

A few days later on my flight back home, several soldiers were on their way home from Iraq for leave. As the flight attendant announced that we had honored guests on our flight, all of the passengers broke out in applause. They exited the plane first so they could be the first to reunite with their families.

Not only could I not imagine being separated from my family by war and thousands of miles, but I have never sacrificed for my country and family in the way that these men and women have.

So who am I to complain about getting searched at the airport? It’s a small and, yes, annoying sacrifice I make so our country can be a safer place.

It’s unfortunate that my encounters are a waste of time, but those security people were simply doing their job. Without them, and without our soldiers, who knows if commercial air travel would even be possible for the rest of us?

With that being said, I look forward to my random search the next time I travel.