So, I’m a pretty lucky girl. My job provides me with opportunities to meet some really interesting, surprising people. Well, maybe they’re not inherently surprising (they’re probably a better judge of that than I am), but I’m continually surprised by them. There’s nothing like meeting up with someone for the first time–you know, when you’re not quite sure what to expect, even though you may have been corresponding through email for a few days or even weeks beforehand–and, over the course of your first real face-to-face interaction with them, realizing that you have so much more in common than you anticipated. It’s quite an exhilerating feeling, and one I enjoy a whole lot more than I expected to.
Allow me to provide an example:
Today I met up with a gentleman, a new friend with whom I’ve never met before. He had just gotten off the plane when I arrived for our appointment. I was a bit flustered because it was rush hour and I got stuck behind a horse-drawn (well, mule-drawn, actually) carriage tour in the quarter, and it was 90 degrees out. I walked in and he was warm and welcoming, and he offered me a drink. I sat down and we began to chat. At first, it was just normal stuff–what he does for work, where he’s from, where I’m from, what to do in New Orleans, that kind of stuff. But within a few minutes we somehow ended up on the topic of books and literature. I won’t divulge the details of our discussion here (though I will say that it did involve F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, John Grisham, and others). But the point is, even though we live very different lifestyles, we were able to touch on a common passion (books, stories, reading), and we were able to reveal a bit of ourselves by sharing with each other the ways in which we fit that passion into our own lives, what we gain from it, and how it has shaped us. I found that aspect of our conversation really inspiring. And that was quite a turn on ;)