The world is a small, small place. I think this quite frequently, as was reminded of this two days ago, when, in Tokyo, I met a woman I first met in November 1996 and haven't seen since.
I'm not usually the kind of person that remembers such one time meetings. I'm only OK with names and faces - not great, but not terrible. I often find myself wishing I were better, honestly. Two days ago, I met an embassy colleague's wife, who is also a foreign service officer, and we found out we both went to Wellesley, she in the class above me. Since we lived in different dorms (me in Caz, her in Tower and Stone-D) and majored in different things (me Japanese, her French), we hadn't thought we had met. Yet her uncommon name and face were very familiar to me, so I kept mulling over where we might have and when.
As I lay half-awake in a jet lag induced stupor, too tired to get out of bed, yet too awake to fall back asleep, I remembered: she hosted me when I was a prospective student. Or maybe her roommate was technically my hostess, but I spent most of the evening with her. I remember attending her LDS bible study and fellowship afterward -- her roommate was involved in some kind of art or music performing group at MIT and was spending that evening at a rehearsal off campus. I had flown all the way to Boston from Austin to visit Wellesley (and not MIT), so despite not being LDS, I tagged along at her invitation just to meet students and see what the school was all about.
It was a very pleasent evening - the bible study itself not too long, and though usually only about half of the students stayed for dinner at Schneider (the old campus center), that evening everyone did to talk to me about what they liked and didn't like about the school. Between taht evening's fellowship and then visiting two classes the next morning (chemistry and Japanese) -- and subsequently being accepted in April -- the rest is history. Ra, Ra, Wellesley, Ra.
This woman has no recollection of that evening. Of course, for her, it was just one regular weekly meeting of her bible study group. For me, though, it impacted my college choice. Even stranger, we both ended up in the foreign service and crossing paths again at the embassy in Tokyo, half way around the world from Lake Waban, Tower Court, and Schneider.
I'm not usually the kind of person that remembers such one time meetings. I'm only OK with names and faces - not great, but not terrible. I often find myself wishing I were better, honestly. Two days ago, I met an embassy colleague's wife, who is also a foreign service officer, and we found out we both went to Wellesley, she in the class above me. Since we lived in different dorms (me in Caz, her in Tower and Stone-D) and majored in different things (me Japanese, her French), we hadn't thought we had met. Yet her uncommon name and face were very familiar to me, so I kept mulling over where we might have and when.
As I lay half-awake in a jet lag induced stupor, too tired to get out of bed, yet too awake to fall back asleep, I remembered: she hosted me when I was a prospective student. Or maybe her roommate was technically my hostess, but I spent most of the evening with her. I remember attending her LDS bible study and fellowship afterward -- her roommate was involved in some kind of art or music performing group at MIT and was spending that evening at a rehearsal off campus. I had flown all the way to Boston from Austin to visit Wellesley (and not MIT), so despite not being LDS, I tagged along at her invitation just to meet students and see what the school was all about.
It was a very pleasent evening - the bible study itself not too long, and though usually only about half of the students stayed for dinner at Schneider (the old campus center), that evening everyone did to talk to me about what they liked and didn't like about the school. Between taht evening's fellowship and then visiting two classes the next morning (chemistry and Japanese) -- and subsequently being accepted in April -- the rest is history. Ra, Ra, Wellesley, Ra.
This woman has no recollection of that evening. Of course, for her, it was just one regular weekly meeting of her bible study group. For me, though, it impacted my college choice. Even stranger, we both ended up in the foreign service and crossing paths again at the embassy in Tokyo, half way around the world from Lake Waban, Tower Court, and Schneider.
No comments:
Post a Comment