A good conversation
Today I had such a good conversation.
Part of the experience of going abroad to study is meeting many different people, from different countries, with different backgrounds, culture, language, families, ways of thinking.
I met good friends during my first time abroad in Lisbon, and I got to reunite with them while here in China. They were for me an example of what a good friendship was like, and what surprised me more at that time was the ease with which they accepted my feelings and thoughts on different subjects. We don't agree on everything, and some of our likes are opposite, but we don't need to be alike to enjoy our company. Even after so many years apart, the connection remained the same. How incredible is that?
And yet, I guess I had forgotten that initial feeling. I feel like I forced myself into situations in the past that were not good enough just because I felt like "that's what friendship is like", feeling that friends are supposed to be this or that.
At work, the past year, I had the fortune of meeting such amazing coworkers and friends. That's when I first started comparing the weight of my connections. I met such an amazing woman; she is 40 years older than me, but never had I felt so happy going to work knowing that she was there with me. We talked with ease about everything. So I thought, how can this person understand and respect my thoughts better than the people closer to my age that I am supposed to consider my friends?
I left for China with these thoughts still blooming, but now that I am here I got to see them invading my thoughts fully. I have been going out and talking with so many people, and each and every one of them I find to be so interesting. It is so easy to have a conversation, to share our experiences, to confront the differences in our thoughts, never with prejudice or egoistic feelings of having the "right" opinion.
To be able to share my thoughts in front of a class of people, or talk openly and share my point of view, I never thought I would suddenly be able to do all of this when in the past I couldn't at all. These experiences I am having, they are invaluable. They give me a point of comparison, of what could be, should be. And thanks to these experiences, I think I will be able to grow and become a better version of who I am and want to be, and already I feel I have learned so much and gained an amount of confidence in myself and my values that I did not have before.
Today I had such a good conversation; I hope to have many more in the future.