I’d just left my friend after lunch and set my sights on taking a walk toward the subway. I had a couple of hours to wage before afternoon tea with another friend. I glanced over toward a low marble ledge and saw her sitting quietly looking down, lost in thought, as she ate. I need to go talk to her. The thought came from outside of me. I had a quick argument in my head, seconds long really, where I told me that she would think me strange But I found my feet abruptly turning toward her before I could talk myself out of it any further. She was white but I didn’t assume she was American. I approached her more boldly than I felt. “Do you speak English?” I asked her, a smile on my face to soften the confidence.
Yes, I do….she replied, with a French accent.
Ahhhhh, I saw you as I was walking by and something told me to stop and talk to you. Do you live here?
She smiled…..it’s my first day.
With that we were off. She was 23, an only child, an introvert tired of being trapped inside of herself. She decided who she appeared on the outside was keeping who she was on the inside undercover. Defying everyone’s expectations, she made a plan that scared her and did it anyway. She wrote out a list of countries she wanted to visit, cities within those countries and told her parents who were none too pleased. She started off mildly safe, going to China where there was someone there their family already knew. Her mother needed to know she would be with someone who cared while she got her bearings. After a few hiccups with Visa acquisition, mainly from China who wasn’t at all sure why she wanted to go to 8 different cities in their country, she was dropped off at the airport and kissed the sky.
She described tai chi classes, chinese calligraphy and wandering around China with no agenda. Four months later, she landed in Seoul, Korea yesterday. And today two people, age difference enough to be mother and daughter, we bonded over shared dreams, outlook, hunger to know and see and learn and experience. I understand exactly how you feel, I told her. I’m so proud of you for doing what you’re doing. Do you write? Not really, she replied. She didn’t think she knew how. I offered to buy her coffee and we went in to talk.
May I encourage you to consider journaling this trip in some form; book, online, blog….you say you want to inspire. I know there are others who would find bravery through you. “Do you really think so??” Her eyes glittered in the late afternoon sun. I’m sure of it, I told her. “You have inspired me! If I were 23, I would want to be you! There is someone out there who needs to hear from you!”
You have such a light, you give off good energy. I’m so glad I met you. I grabbed her hand…..I am too! We exchanged WhatsApp information and I told her I would be checking in on her. Before I left I was struggling to get a bottle of sparkling water open. She reached to help me and the water spewed out all over her. I’ve got my title for my blog post today, I told her, as we both laughed. “Sparkling Water!”
SuJeong arrived right about then and I introduced my new friend to her. We agreed to keep in touch and Sujeon and I headed up to the coffee lounge on the 14th floor! The view of the city with the mountains hugging it made my soul sigh. We sat and caught up on life. I met her on my first visit 4 years ago, a young fiance. We exchanged Instagram accounts and kept up with each other’s ebb and flow. She’s now married 3 years and expecting their first child. Our talk this time revolved around diapers and she learned the meaning of “potty training”. It made me happy to see her joy.
We both headed for the subway, going in different directions and hugged goodbye. Each of us made it to our own platform when we both messaged one another simultaneously. “We forgot to take a picture!!” We rushed back and found one another. Snap, snap, snap…all done. More hugs. I jumped onto the subway car and turned around. “See you next year!” she called after me. Another wave, another goodbye, another plan.
I sat quietly in my subway seat, thinking back over the day. I looked up to see two ladies standing near me looking at me and smiling. As the seats beside me emptied, they quickly sat down. “We think you look younger than us!” they smiled. I offered them one of the candies I was pulling out of my purse. “Ahhhh, 감사합니다!” (thank you!) they said as their face lit up and they shyly took one. “English?” I asked. “Little bit” they giggled. We talked about America and that one of them had been to New York 20 years ago. Their stop came. “Goodbye! Thank you!” they smiled and waved so eagerly like school girls and it made me laugh. How sweet they seemed. I wish I could have talked to them longer.
Earlier in the day I sat again on the subway and an older man sat in the empty seat beside me. I looked up and smiled, as a way to signal an open door if someone wants to talk to me. “You are from America?” The now familiar question was the opening line of someone eager to communicate. He pulled out a scrapbook and showed me his newspaper clippings and photographs, some with the former President Moon, detailing his career. He was going to speak to a high school class, he told me. He enjoyed photography and music and began serenading me right there in the subway car. I looked around and no one acted like they heard. Koreans know how to mind their own business. 🙂 I asked if I could take our picture and he gave my phone to the young man beside him who politely obliged.
You are very beautiful, he said. So sweet, genuinely given, gratefully received. “I will pray that you will be happy in Jesus Christ,” he said unexpectedly as he took my hand and bowed. “Thank you for letting me sit next to you.” And he stepped off the subway and melted away into the crowd.
I smiled away a lump in my throat. Every single one of these things felt like the sparkling water that my friend and I got drenched in earlier. Shiny, taken by surprise……and spills all over you and makes you laugh. And I do love life’s surprises! It leaves me standing and smiling a little bewildered, these encounters that seem to be predesigned just for me. Years ago the discount store, KMart, had blue light specials, announced by a light on a pole that was visible anywhere in the store indicating a special deal had just been announced, the blue light beginning to blink to lead the way. This trip has had me wondering if I have some kind of “talk to me” light over my head. I love that the Lover of my Soul gives me these cups of sparkling water. It fills me up and I have more to pass around.
WOW what adventures you are enjoying.