An airport is a whole building built for the in-between. Some parts of life are hallways, and that’s allowed.

Whole buildings exist for nothing but waiting, with seats and food and signs devoted to the gap between one place and the next. Nobody calls an airport a failure for not being a destination. Parts of a life work like that too: the year after school, the job paying for something else, the stretch where nothing is resolved. A hallway is not a mistake in the floor plan.

If you are in one, stop grading it as if it were the destination. Work out what this stretch is for, do that, and let the rest be transit.