I spent the last weekend in New York City for a reunion with 4 of my friends from Interlochen. It was a blast. 4 of us met up Saturday evening, ate dinner, walked around Time Square and Little Italy, and played detective/stalker in a desperate attempt to locate the final member of our motley crew who was arriving from DC.
It was a great time reuniting. We were all still unique in our old ways, and yet were now 20 somethings who had just matured in that uniquness. It's hard to describe everything in a blog, but I learned once again that in a month, you can form the most wonderful friendships.
Or they can form in 8 hours.
I was supposed to leave on Monday afternoon. Arriving at the correct airport but wrong terminal, I finally rushed to my plane only to find it had been delayed...to the next morning. Too impatient to wait in line to see how the airline would compensate, I reboarded the bus to downtown. I made friends with a grad student name Josh who had just arrived from a bachelor party in Montreal. He walked with me to the Metro which was a blessing as I wasn't sure which train was correct.
I arrived at Columbus Circle and withdrew $50 from my account (I had lost my debit card the night before). With none of my friends picking up their phones, I decided to go back to the Irish pub I had visited for lunch that afternoon. John, the bartender from Belfast, welcomed me back with the Irish dialect that had brought me back in the first place.
I sat at the bar, and proceeded to explain my story: the lost card, the cancelled flight, the unreturned phone calls. The story evolved into a conversation between John, myself, and a young engaged British couple sitting next to me. The girl, Leanne, offered to buy me a drink. "We're on holiday!" she said. So she, her fiance Ben, and I continued to dinner, talking about politics, the difference in British and American school systems, my family heritage in England, British behavior at soccer games, and so on. I learned that England does NOT still refer to the US as "the Colonies" and how offering a British girl a Diet Coke is an insult ("What? Are you calling me fat?") And they insisted to cover each bill. "It's holiday!" I like British holidays...
We called it a night around 10pm, where I took a taxi to my friend Lindsey's apartment ($15). In the morning, I taxied again to Laguardia ($35). That totaled $50, the amount I had to spend in the first place. God does provide beyond our expectations...
And what a provision! Instead of another day with past-time friends, I met international "mates" who not only paid for my expenses and offered "wicked" conversations, but also invited me to stay with them in England. Looks like talking to strangers can sometimes be a wonderful experience :)
Oh, and why am I not yeilding to complacency: being in New York made me realize there is so much more in the world than the one in which I live. Being surrounded by people of different languages and different histories and different views reminds me that there are people beyond those I already know. I was becoming complacent in the post-university world I was developing. But this trip reminded me that this year IS a transition period. What lays ahead is unknown, but it is so much bigger than I imagined.
Life was never meant to be lived complacently. Open all the doors and let you out into the world...
