(True story: so while I start writing down ideas for this paper Cody and I are sitting at a table in a hotel in Bali, chatting and he goes: "is someone moving the table with their knee?". And then: "Oh no wait, it is an earthquake". Life in Indonesia.)
Lately I have been thinking about how you meet people. Or about the most random situations can lead to great new friends, or how something that didn’t seem off to a great start ended being a great friendship.
For example my best friend, who I met when I was 18. The first few months I thought she was loud and annoying and also she was trying to steal the guy I wanted so I wasn’t quite disposed to be her friend. But she wouldn’t leave me alone I guess, and then it just happened, and we have been sharing tears and laughs and the rollercoaster of life for the past 18 years now. On completely different paths of life, yet it doesn’t matter. We totally have different lives today, but I still think she is the yin to my yang or something. I miss her dearly and I wish someone would invent mind travel for once so we could have a bottle of wine together whenever I want.
A couple of days I was sitting down with a friend over dinner and someone asked us how we met. We gave each other an awkward look and I said “we had a mutual friend” before moving the conversation to another topic. It was only part of the truth, we met at his funeral. Never thought something good would come out of that one, it has given me so much grief and tears over the last two years, yet it did. That thing about there is always something good coming out of the worst, maybe it is true.
Take another one: my Divemaster course 10 years ago. Met that girl then, got along great, didn’t see her for 5 years but stayed in touch and then invited her randomly to go to a little dive holiday in Indonesia and she did and we had the best time ever, so good that we ended up doing it again the next year and I hope that we will again one day and that we can pick up the conversation where we left it 3 years ago.
Or an even more random one: the person you meet on a online forum about writing, and then you start chatting, and then you end up having coffee and it turns out to be the start of a good friendship, one that makes you want to keep the conversation going and to share stuff and to stroll the streets of Paris telling each other life stories. Like you were 15 except that you are over 30.
I guess you never know what life is going to throw at you. Sometimes people get here on the island planning to stay 3 weeks and they end up staying a year or two. With a bit of flexibility and an open mind you can go a long way.
Here is to friends mentioned above and others and friends to come: keep walking across my path, you are the salt of life. Amour et Joie, as we say.
(and yeah I know I said I would write about diving next time, but the molas have been avoiding me again so I have decided not to jinx it even more. To be continued).