021711/a journey to find balance

Walked into Dan's office today to get my independent study papers signed, only to find Not Dan sitting in his chair. He invited me in and told me Dan would be back shortly. Normally, such encounters would be awkward; normally, I would just wait outside in the hall until Dan came back. But for some reason, I agreed to sit in the tiny office with a complete stranger.

It's weird how things work out like that sometimes. We got to talking and actually learned a lot about each other. Not Dan told me about this ambitious project he's undertaking that starts with some community awareness about street names, mixes with a bit of controversy, and ends with a better understanding of U.S. relations with the Philippines and other third-world countries. I told him about my major (and minor), the archive, my plans for the future, and my complicated relationship with my parents about said future. And even though we had never met before that moment, we were talking like old friends. The conversation went from political to personal and everywhere in between, and we had similar levels of understanding on all fronts. About half-an-hour passed and finally Dan came back. Then Not Dan looked at me, hand outstretched, and said, "Oh hey, I'm B, by the way."

I had never before met someone where the conversation came so naturally, where the exchange of words felt so nice, and the need to learn about each others content was greater than the need to know each others names. I could see the passion in B's eyes when he described his project to me, and I was genuinely interested. And I could feel his empathy for me when I told him about my parents, because he himself had experienced similar situations with his own. And when we talked politics, we found ourselves on the same page, seeing the world with the same set of eyes. It's refreshing to meet people with the same passions as me. Kasama.

It's encounters like these, when I feel like I've met a true brother of the movement, that I feel like I'm making the right choices, taking the right path in life. Meeting other people who are fighting for the same thing as me gives me hope and tells me to keep going. Hopefully, B and I will meet again. Maybe I can even help him with his project in the future. But even if we never talk again, I know I will meet other people like him. In this field of work, it's inevitable. Kasama.