Travel Diaries

The Meet-Cute

It's strange how one dinner can change your life; or one anything for that matter. Every decision you make, however small or big, changes you, by altering the course of your life. What's even stranger is how well people can get along, irrespective of being from vastly different cultures. The human heart at the very core, is the same; once you strip away the money, the airs and the rubbish people convince themselves of, that is. This is one of the first things she noticed, after coming so far away. It was quite a levelling factor, this living in diversity business. One becomes intimately aware of just how similar human beings are. The same conceited, silly illogical creatures, capable of the same love, compassion and understanding, (if really pushed to). That paradox also becomes evident. Human beings are not black or white; they are black and white, shades of grey, if you will.

This dinner in question, unbeknownst to her, would change her life. It would introduce her to people who would resonate her thoughts and engage her mind. More than that, they would work their way into her heart and make her feel once again. She met her best friend that night, and she also met him. The boy who would remind her of herself. Stranger things have happened, but this took the cake. In the little annex beside the church, a dinner was hosted. The sole aim of this dinner: a welcome to international students. For her it was more than that, and at that time she didn't even know it.

People come into your life for a reason, and that reason may not always be apparent at the time. They may not even last longer than a few days or weeks. But then again what, in life, does? Most things are transitory. As human beings we like permanency because it means we can predict things and be certain of our lives. We like that control.

When we let go, when we let go of the need to control everything and understand it in totality, that's when our minds are freed. That's when we are happy. - she thought to herself. This was also so new to her. Going with the flow and not having everything figured out or in the process of being figured out. But she was willing to try this new approach (since, basically every other approach had let her down).

At that dinner there was a person with the most kindly warm face she had ever seen. And that person just exuded love. She felt it when that person said "Hi. I'm..." She could hear it in that person's shaky nervous voice. The love and the warmth. It was uncanny. This person whole aura called to her. This person, an absolute darling of a woman, would soon become her person. Her life and her best friend. Within the few days that followed that dinner her heart felt at home. And that was their meet cute. A meet cute that would bring more memories and more laughter than she had ever had in her whole life.