14. Go Team

Nora’s not a natural joiner, but you know what always gets her? The power of strangers rallying together in small and unexpectedly heartwarming ways.

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INTRO MUSIC

I’m Nora McInerny, and it’s going to be okay. 

I am not a natural joiner. I didn’t buy a college sweatshirt until halfway through my sophomore year. I was kind of uncomfortable around the kids who showed up wearing them. Because how do you know you’re already a fan! We took 1 hour tours around the campus, we haven’t even taken a class yet! We haven’t backed up a toilet or been kicked off the shuttle for being too drunk! Who knows if this is really the place for any of us! 

Once I’m into something, though, I’m pretty much in it. I am truly shocked I have not yet joined a cult. If I think about it too much I will actually get insecure. Like, why wouldn’t they want me? What’s wrong with ME that nobody has asked me to be in their cult yet! And by the way, all it would take me to be convinced is a simple invitation.

But one thing I really, really love…is teamwork. I love seeing a group of people come together to accomplish something. It is so cute if they’re all wearing the same jersey, or they practice together regularly. It’s especially cute if they’re amateurs and not getting paid for it but honestly I have been known to like, weep, at Super Bowl winners because the unbridled joy of a group of people who wanted something and made it happen is so sweet. It is so pure. 

But I especially love when an unexpected team forms, suddenly and temporarily. A group of strangers rising to the occasion together. Perhaps heroically, but even more importantly…when it is nearly inconsequential. 

Airports are filled with busy, important people going places fast. Or, speed walking to the gate as quickly as they can…we all end up on the same plane going the exact same speed, but some people really need to get on and off as quick as possible. 

Airports are also little microcosms of society, like little bitty cultures that are constantly shifting. One group of people leaves, and another flows right in to take their place. One person gets up from their seat at the bar, another one fills it. 

Tens of thousands of people flowing in and out of one building every single day, having micro-interactions that they will likely never remember. 

I love to watch people at the airport, and I hope that nobody is watching me because it’s not cute to take out your invisalign in public but also taking it out in the bathroom? Feels so gross.

But I love to see how these tiny little interactions can create a little micro-team that lasts for just a few minutes. A place where countless anonymous strangers intersect maybe for the only time in their entire lives and then just, move on. 

It was Friday evening in the airport, and people were eager to get wherever they needed to go: home after a work trip, away from home for a vacation…and a woman was walking so fast to get to her gate that she didn’t notice her jacket had fallen off of her suitcase. But I noticed. And a man standing on the edge of the walkway on his cell phone noticed. And another guy noticed. And the combination of the three of us grabbed the jacket, shouted for her, ran to catch up with her. And her jacket was returned, and she was grateful. And for a moment, even though right now I could not pick out any of these people from a lineup, do not know their names, will likely never see them again and if I did I would never have even known I had seen them before…the four of us were a team. A team! Three heroes and a damsel who would have been in distress when she was on a chilly airplane. 

We were champions. We wore no jerseys. We got no trophies. But we did it.

Go team.

OUTRO MUSIC

I’m Nora McInerny. And it’s going to be okay.

CREDITS