Why passengers always dress smartly when they go to the airport goes viral

Airports are often portrayed on screen as hotbeds of meet-cutes, and while most of us walk unkempt through security to our gates in real life, one woman has gone viral for pointing out the romantic potential of airport terminals.

Sarah Ott, known online as @thesarahott, decided to upgrade her airport attire and the way she spends time in terminals after learning how her parents met. On Instagram, Ott recently posted a video of herself immaculately dressed sitting in an airport drinking coffee.

In her post, which attracted a lot of attention, she describes in detail how her parents' story inspired her to dress well while traveling.

“My love of travel is definitely influenced by my parents,” said Ott, a marketing manager in Vancouver, Canada, Newsweek. “One day I thought I would share a little bit of their story and how I dress to go to the airport because my parents met at an airport.”

She added: “My mother had studied in Germany for a year and so recognized my father's very German accent and went over to introduce herself. While one of them stayed at the airport and the other left, they exchanged information and ended up writing letters to each other for two years before they got married.”

A few years ago, Ott backpacked through Europe and meticulously documented her travels. Her social media series, in which she crossed off countries and showcased striking landmarks, quickly attracted a community of travel enthusiasts. The content creator now has more than 18,000 followers on Instagram.

“A fun fact about me is that I always dress up when I go to the airport because that's where my parents met,” Ott wrote in the post, which has been liked more than 15,900 times. In the video's caption, she described her parents' chance encounter in more detail.

“I remember the first time my mother told me how she and my father met, and I still think it's the most romantic thing in the world,” Ott wrote.

She told the story of how her mother, a teacher at the time, and her father, a cameraman, happened to be at a small, remote airport in northern Canada. Their paths crossed by chance as one was arriving and the other was departing.

The connection was formed when her mother, who had studied in Germany for a year, heard her father speaking German and confidently approached him. They talked, exchanged contact details and decided to stay in touch.

“When used correctly, social media can be a place that connects us from near and far,” Ott said. “The comment section of the post is filled with similar love stories about meeting people at airports, on the side of the road and even in warehouses.”

“It also sparked conversations about how we present ourselves and whether attractiveness has anything to do with what we wear,” she continued.

In fact, her romantic and nostalgic gesture sparked a discussion about personal style and its effect on potential attractions.

“This is the third video I've seen about dressing better at the airport,” said one viewer. “My Instagram algorithm is trying to tell me something.”

“This is the love story of my dreams,” added another.

“I love this! My parents met on a plane! My dad flew and my mom was his flight attendant,” wrote one commenter.

Another wrote: “Same! No matter what, I always try to look good.”

“You can see me as a mess first,” one user commented. “This will be my normal sweatpants anyway and a crop top is my comfort zone.”

Ott added, “I love love and had no idea that sharing a small snippet of my parents' love story would elicit such a beautiful response.”

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