Imagine a busy airport.  Then imagine ten times more people.  That’s how Dulles looked the day after Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration.

Imagine cold.  Imagine it ten times colder.  That’s how it was standing in line outside the Dulles airport for hours waiting to check our bags.   

But I’m not complaining, I learned something during that long wait.  Large crowds + freezing temperatures create opportunities to do good deeds.

The first opportunity came after about 20 minutes of waiting in line.  Three elderly women, a father and his young daughter waited shivering in line behind us.  They looked colder than I felt - probably, because like a boyscout, I was prepared.  I had extra hand warmers left over from the inauguration festivities.   Rather than horde them, I shared my stash.  They perked up a little after that.  They perked up even more when my friends and I let them cut in line.  (Their flight was before ours and time was running out)

30 minutes after my hand warmers were gone, I realized that I’d lost all feeling in my toes. That’s when Max - my New York friend- and I devised a plan to stay warm. We took shifts, alternating where one of us would go inside every 5 minutes to warm up while the other one pulled the bags in the line outside.  This lasted for another 90 minutes.  By this time, Max was almost certain that he was going to miss his flight - it was taking off within the half hour. A member of the PYIC (Presidential Youth Inaugural Conference) staff came outside to gather all scholars who had flights leaving before 1:00pm in a last ditch effort to get them out of Dulles on time.

I watched Max disappear into the warm airport, but didn’t despair, because I was in the home stretch of this marathon procession. There were only ten people in front of me and I wasn’t going to give up now.   Then something unexpected happened.  A girl near the front of the line collapsed.  

I watched it happen as if in slow motion.  I reacted immediately, shouting and waving to get the workers at the bag station to help.  That didn’t work out so well - they ignored me.  What to do?  Well, I was running on adrenaline, so rather than standing around waiting,  I hurdled over bags and ran inside to find help.  (Who knew I could jump so high?)  

I found a security guard and dragged him outside.  He took charge immediately and in a matter of seconds there was a bevy of airport officials helping the unconscious girl.  

30 minutes after the rescue, the wait outside was over.  I was thawing in the very long security line.  This is where karma came in …  I saw the security guard who’d helped me earlier.   He motioned to me conspiratorially, and said the words that were magic to my ears, “How would you like to go through the priority line?”  

“Really?!” I was so excited that I wanted to hug him.  But he had a gun, so instead I just said, “Thank you.”

Being at the inauguration of our 44th president Barack Obama was an unforgettable experience.   But sometimes it’s the real experiences helping others and being helped by others that make the best memories.  That security guard not only saved me another grueling hour in line, but he also showed me a kindness that I won’t forget.