Written by Swati
“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever.” -Alfred Tennyson.
It’s not the sights or the architecture that make a place, it’s the people. Many of you will remember a trip I wrote about earlier in the semester to Scotland that completely changed the trajectory of how I traveled the past few months. I learned to seek out the brightness of life after thinking the world was a dark and soulless place. I learned to reach out a hand and see the world as something I could hold in my own two hands. I made two new friends, Safiya and Seungah, in line before the keshi concert in Glasgow and kept in touch with them through a groupchat, regularly sending them pictures and updates of my travels. Every weekend I’d beam from Portugal, Switzerland, Ireland, and London.
In a sudden twist of events, they both had a free weekend at the end of April and found flights to Luxembourg. Never have I ever had someone spend 10 hours in transit to come see me. Until now. They flew from Scotland to London, London to Luxembourg, then took the train from Luxembourg to Metz just to spend 3 nights and 2 days in Metz. I had a loose itinerary of the things we should do together: Metz Cathedral, Marche Couvert, Fox Coffee, and a list of restaurants in the area that we could choose from. But, the best memories aren’t from the places that you go, but the conversations that you have. We spent most of our time in the AirBnB catching up, and in-and-out of boulangeries trying new French pastries. Sometimes you don’t find humans, you find souls. You find all warmth, and no ice. You find a shoulder to lay your head on, an encouraging smile from the crowd. Sometimes the universe plays too big a role in your life to attribute cosmic meetings to anything other than fate. There’s a line from my favorite Korean poem, Misiryung Sunset by Seongsun Lee.
“내 몸에 우주가 손을 얹었다 //
너무 가볍다”
(The universe lays a hand on me // It is so light)
When I was in 10th grade, I heard about the concept of deism for the first time: God as the watchmaker, the timekeeper. And I connected to it. While I do identify as religious, I’ve had too many fateful occurrences to disbelieve a higher power pulling the strings in my life, I like to think I have a good amount of free will in my life. I believe God lays a hand on my shoulder at certain times, and leans me towards that which is meant for me. But there is no such thing as right decisions. Just choices and paths and the one that you walk down eventually, with all of its twists and turns, flower petals fall where they may.
I love spending time with people a little older than me. It’s the youngest sibling in me. My sister was born just a few years ago, but until I started high school, I received much of the family adoration, and I bloomed under it. I feel a similar sense of warmth around friends a few years older than me or others who are older siblings themselves. They have a protective, “I’ll take care of it” aura. When I’m with them I can laugh louder, smile bigger, and speak my mind. Everyone on the planet has their unique set of memories, values, and perspectives. And I think oftentimes the people a few years older than me best articulate their life experiences and lessons, while looking out for me in the meantime. Safiya and Seungah feel like my parents, the parents I should’ve had. Safiya, soft-spoken and gentle, a recently graduated Physics major from the University of Glasgow, always ready with a hug and snack in hand. Seungah, a leather jacket wearing, fist-bumping, graphic design student at the Glasgow School of Art. A cheesy line from every Korean drama is, “지켜줄게.”(I’ll protect you). Safiya and Seunagh said those words to me jokingly when I was telling them about something weighing down on my mind. While it’s a line people don’t take seriously, I’ll carry the affection in my heart at that moment for the rest of my life. What a gift it is to have people up in arms, ready to back me up at any time. The time I had with them was short, but precious beyond words. People are flowers, water them with care and shine on them with affection and watch them bloom in your garden forever.