Unexpected experiences preciously priceless

This piece is inspired by my current watching of the series on Netlfix - “the bold type” which focuses on owning yourself and who you are for anything and everything that you are. 

It’s divinely coincidental that I happen to watch it at a time when I’m at a crucial transitory phase in my life. Which brings me to the crux of this article. 

So I moved to Poland in 2015 to study Psychology at SWPS University. Among other beautiful friends, I was blessed with 4 closest mates. We cooked together, laughed, roamed around the city, enjoyed ice cream, sushi and tons of other things while fighting with each other on and off and eventually coming back together and getting better with each other than ever before. 1 moved to the USA after our second year and the others moved back to Norway. Leading me to have no bffs (best friends forever) in a country where I am a foreigner. 

Having lived in Oman before getting here, I was surrounded by a host of warm friends in my community in the Christian church. People that I’d meet almost thrice a week constantly. I thought I would never find a group like them again. 

My bffs being in Norway and the US - brought up the perfect opportunity that directed my path to unchartered territory. Something I didn’t see coming. But hey, they say - life happens when you’re not planning it. So for the past three years, I have been a Native Speaker working with children and adults of various ages. Blessed with a people-friendly personality, I lived in the world of about 150 people on a weekly basis on the full capacity of work mode. Every experience was unique in its own way. It varied with topics of discussion about almost anything under the sun and planned lessons with dancing and games and being silly. 

There were days where I’d feel like I’d like to tear my hair apart from the mischief of kids but fortune is on my side seems to weigh the good times heavier. 

This week being my last as I conclude my work here, we have been saying goodbyes, conveying best wishes for a good future. Among the precious connections, I am blessed to have  - a couple strikeout. 

So in October 2020, given the online mode of learning, I began weekly 30 minute lessons with a 7-year-old girl whom I taught the previous year. Our lessons were on Tuesdays around 6:00 PM. 30 - 35 minutes of activities around vocabulary, reading, writing and grammar on zoom. Since spring of 2020 I didn’t see her until 8 June 2021; i.e. almost a year. 

Each Tuesday she’d spend those 30 minutes literally soaking up all the new language, learning enthusiastically week after week. Today being my last lesson with her, I asked her parents if I could do the lesson in-house instead of zoom, now that things have opened up. 

So over the months from September till June  - which is now, I was constantly amazed by her willingness and interest in all the new material we learned. It was magical. Even on days that I’d be tired after many hours of work, I’d look forward to my 6:00 PM. My 6:00 PM was a 7 year old on a screen across from me who was open to learning without dimming her light. 

So when I finally met her for the last lesson she gave me a handmade thank you card. This humble paper held the wonder and spirit which she shared with me every week virtually. It is one of the most creative ways of saying thank you I have ever seen. It perfectly reflected what we learned throughout the year  - alphabets and words and reading. 

We hugged almost four times when we met. I felt this unimaginable blissful pureness of knowing this girl. I asked her dad to take pictures of us together. Truth be told - I don’t know about you but when I’m truly happy, it shows completely on my facial expressions. I do not need to take a shot repeatedly thinking it’s not the right angle or the right smile. Coz none of that matters in such moments. If destiny is on my side I hope to somehow continue guiding her on her journey of learning English. 

After leaving her home, I can’t get over this unconditional love and utter sincerity that I experience with this girl. It’s something I could never imagine. Whatever my limited human brain can imagine - this surpasses it all. I’ve never been stoned. But the bliss that people rave about after being stoned is how I feel. Like I’m walking in clouds or in an endless meadow filled with flowers. So grateful for this experience on earth. 

Returning back to my introduction of how my friends went back to other countries and me feeling an absence of real friends in my life - the absence was filled with little precious souls such as these with moments that were priceless. Do I regret not having personal friends in this city to hang out with? This series of goodbyes has culminated to show me that the absence was purposefully designed, divinely perhaps, to let me experience a different kind of life that I wasn’t used to before.