People are just more chatty here

Back in 2011, whenever I had a deadline I would pack my schedule as much as I can.
I was excited when my schedule was filled.
I felt I had a purpose
I felt I was living life to the max.

It's like asking the question. If you were diagnosed with a terminal illness and had only 1 year to live. What would you do? I imagine many people's answers would be like mine. Try to tick everything from your to do list. Try to enjoy life as much as possible.

And that I did. But when I found out I was diagnosed with a chronic life long illness. My perspective changed. I didn't want to travel the world and see what I haven't. I didn't want to make new friends. All I wanted to do was stay home. All I could do was move between the living room and bathroom. I felt so peaceful as the world was passing by. As I stayed home, I didn't give myself deadlines, I just simply did what I could. And that was enough.

I have always been a distant person. Very detached from friendships. Very detached from any meaningful relationships. That's when I realized, you really find out who your true friends are during a time of crisis. And I didn't have many.

Back to Paris. I was pretty young, naive and brave. I took the train to Paris by myself. Sure I have gone to places myself before. But this was a foreign country that I didn't speak the language of. Travelling alone didn't feel lonely. I had a limited time and I wanted to see everything.

There I met a young Turkish soldier who helped me take some lovely photos. He told me about his life and what life was like for him. He had lovely brown green eyes and was on a tour of Paris taking a break from army life. Everything different sounded so interesting. Opposite attracts they say. And maybe my boring life didn't sound so boring after all to others.

Talking to strangers and making friends and connecting to people seems like it is one of my skills. What drives this is curiosity for human life. Curiosity for the future. Curiosity for the unknown.

With not much time left before I had to return to the train station (didn't realize the time difference b/w London and Paris). I parked myself on a bench in a random park. And an older gentlemen who said he was in finance sat down and began to talk. A staple question people always ask is, "where are you from?" I replied back, "I'm Canadian". "Where are you really from?"

This was the first time someone expressed how he didn't think Canada was a "good enough" country. No history. No culture. Not important. But being Chinese was different. Because China was a powerful country. China full of culture, history and stories. My attitude towards me being Chinese Canadian changed. I felt that much more proud of my Chinese background.

Every time I talk with someone in Finance. I feel like I'm wasting my time at the Job. It's so narrow, so specific, so not finance.

Fear of solo travel and language disappeared after this trip.