Airports have always been an exciting place in my mind. People are all moving so fast; noticing nothing but their gate number, the 10 inches in front of their face, and for people like me, where the closest Starbucks is.
Airports are a really cool place because you are in a building with thousands of people, from all over the world. There are so many stories walking around. People are flying for business trips, for vacations, and some are traveling home to people they love. I don't really expect to talk to people while I fly; people generally keep to themselves and I respect that so I also keep to myself.
I had just boarded the plane to fly to Atlanta, to then reach my final destination of Virginia, where I would be spending the next 3 weeks. It was an 8:00am flight so I had been up since 5:00am to ensure I would make it to the airport and through security in time; aka I was pretty tired. When I had reached my seat I sat down and the man next to me, about mid 50s, started talking right away. He was so generous by holding my coffee, handing me my seat belt, and just being an absolute joy at 8:00am. We just started talking and for the first time in all of my years of flying, I didn't reach for my phone for music, my laptop for movies, or my book for reading.
I was just there and he was just there and it was such a blessing.
He asked me all about my life and I found him to be so intriguing. He is a physician in a small town in Texas, seemed to have a really put together life, but he was still trying to acquire as many skills as he could because "life is too short to ask permission, you just have to do it" (direct quote from him). He was telling me how he was traveling to D.C. to take a long weekend class to get his commercial wine making certification because a year ago in Chik-fil-a, while with some co-workers, someone had mentioned the subject and he thought to himself how interesting that would be.
That's all it took. Just an interest. I was so inspired.
Even after having a career of being a successful physician, he was still eager to learn something new. He was telling me all about his children, which are now adults, one of his sons had done the Peace Corps for 2 years in Uganda. I knew this was all God because the Peace Corps had not once before been on my mind, especially because I didn't know a lot about what it was. We got to talking about Uganda and Africa in general; Malawi was a focal part of the conversation and I was able to tell him all about my experiences there and all about the beautiful people I was able to meet. This man, this stranger who I don't think I'll ever see again, opened my heart to following my dreams. He had asked if I were interested in something like the Peace Corps. I said yes, especially after our conversation, but it probably wasn't something that would happen for me. All he said was, "why not?"
I didn't really have an answer. That's when I knew it was God.
Now, I don't think I am going to quit grad school and join the Peace Corps but it's definitely something that started out as a "had never once considered" and is now something that "sounds like great post-masters plan".
He then asked me, "What do you think the biggest challenge you'll face in the next 5 years will be?"
He was so full of wisdom and friendly advice; it felt a lot like talking to my own Dad.
I don't even know this man's name. We just talked about such in depth topics and he shared with me his meaning of life and how my generation has so much to experience and take advantage of. He was able to open my heart so fast, giving me such lust for life and the desire to go out and be spontaneous.
While talking to this new stranger-friend, I realized that I had put a lot of adventurous experiences on the back burner because "my parents wouldn't think it's safe" or "I don't think they would let me". He helped me realize, without even giving me these direct words, that I was the only one holding myself back.
Life is truly so beautiful. I was not expecting to meet this man and have such a lovely heart to heart with him. I am so thankful for the moments we don't think will happen. I am also so dissapointed in myself that I didn't give God enough credit to believe that beautiful conversations could come from a 2 hour plane ride from Texas to Georgia.
I'm going to start believing that this world is capable of surprising us, because on this early Wednesday morning, it surprised me.
No comments:
Post a Comment