I have a quirk that has been a feature of mine since a young age: I always find myself connecting with people on airplanes.
The story I derive this from is one my dad retells often. Apparently, when I was around three or four and on an airplane with my parents, I saw another kid my age as everyone was getting their carry-on luggage from the overhead bins and were on the way out of the plane. I yelled a "hello" at him and asked his name. I told him the hotel that we would be staying at too (just in case he wanted to play!) and my dad yelled out "And our social security number is..." and the whole plane had a laugh. I expected that "talent" of mine to disappear with age, but apparently not. I find myself making friends with quite a diverse number of people during flights these days, which I now take often for work. There's Victor from Austin, who shares a love of Lord of the Rings with me. There's Barb, the retired police officer from North Carolina who has more stories than you can count, and most of them sad. There's Jared from Minneapolis, who showed me every special moment that he's had with his fiance and his dog from all the photos on his phone. There's Chip-e who is a euro-pop DJ and is on his way back to Chicago to see his son in the hospital. There's Asad, who is from Tanzania and used to live on a farm but now lives in Dallas and has a strange pride for his city. Then, there's someone I met last week who I can't remember his name, but I can remember his story very clearly. He was getting his MBA in Hawaii and was doing competitive cheer-leading. While he was in school and doing cheer, he found himself found of another cheerleader. When he graduated, and she had a break, he moved to Beaumont, TX and stayed with her, growing even fonder. When she had to go back to Hawaii for school, he had a choice: he could go back, and spend time doing a bit of nothing while she finished her degree, or he could move back to Pittsburgh and get a job. He did the latter. He worked hard and met other people, as eventually the long-distance relationship that he tried to keep with her just couldn't go on; the time difference and the distance was just too far. Soon, he found that he had accidentally gotten another girl pregnant. He decided that he would marry her. However, on the night before his wedding, he called that girl from Beaumont and spoke with her for hours (he told me around eight). I asked him if she tried to get him to come back and cancel the wedding. He responded that he was the one who told her: "Call me before 10 am tomorrow. If you do, I'll cancel the wedding and fly to you", and his best man had a credit card ready to go, should she call. I asked anxiously, "What happened?! Did she call??? I guess not...". He said...she did, but she called too late. She called three hours too late; she had fallen asleep. Later, that woman would go onto to ruin their relationship after having three kids with him, and he would meet his current wife while at a bar, trying to forget his ex. I asked him, what about the girl from before? He told me that he saw her a year ago, at an airport. However, he didn't talk to her, because he knew he would leave whoever he was with to be with her again. I wondered if he really still loved her. I also wondered if she was the one he should've been with. I've always felt that people should come before jobs, and this proved it to me further. At least he would know, if she really was the one. I told him that he should write about it.. like a song, or poem, or something. He said it wasn't his strong suite. It might not be mine, either, but I had to write it out. It was a sad, self-fulfilling prophecy. Who knows what kind of flight stories I'll hear next. I wonder...
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To myself: No promises that this won't cease to be a priority after two days.
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