Once in a while you meet someone that just gets your heart pumping, someone that you click with but will never be good friends with due to various circumstances, someone that you want to get to know and spend as much time as possible with them while you can. I guess that’s the thrill of traveling and meeting people in whom you might talk to for a few minutes, or for the next 24 hours.
This week has been a crazy week, it’s the beginning of midterms for the next three weeks. Trying to juggle my two internships, quidditch, midterm projects, tests and making sure I don’t let my busy-ness get in the way of my social life is one of the hardest things to do. I use to tell people I was busy, but that was when I simply had a lot of school work to do and I was sitting at home procrastinating. Now my definition of busy has changed drastically, busy means I am out of the house by 9:30 in the morning and don’t get back till past 10.
Despite the lack of time and sleep this week, I managed to meet a new friend from Germany and got to know him as much as I could in the span of about 24 hours. He was traveling through Boston for two nights before continuing on his journey.
It was probably the best way to de-stress. We chatted about everything from traveling experiences to our families to our beliefs. It’s interesting to think that we( or perhaps I’m over generalizing) are much more open to being brutally honest with those who have no ties with our current lives. We feel so much more comfortable telling strangers about our fears, parts of ourselves we are ashamed of, and simply letting our self be who we really are. We leave no walls or filter in what we say. It’s an interesting dynamic.
My mind is a little all over the place at the moment so I’m sorry this post has been so scattered, but just wanted to write a little of my thoughts. So now what? Sure we became facebook friends, but realistically, we are going to move on with our busy lives leaving only the memory of our evening conversations- which will become more and more blurry over time.
As we said goodbye, it was surreal knowing that we may never see each other again. The last time I felt this way was traveling through Europe a year and a half ago meeting locals everywhere I went but this time, I’m on the other side of the door, saying goodbye to travelers.
I wish we had more time to get to know each other, but thus our lives go on and I can simply say thank you for rejuvenating my love for these interactions. Thank you for reminding me that there is more to life than filling up my calender with “things I have to do.”
Until next time.
Joanne Lam 