And when we sat on the bench that we found par hasard I thought about how nothing was par hasard,
how we both simultaneously made the same series of choices that led us to be in the same place at the same time, how one act of courage to speak up led to a friendship group filled with so much love, how one single effort for friendship can be so warmly reciprocated.
I consider the fact that we so eagerly ripped ourselves open, sharing our most vulnerable secrets and parts of ourselves in a hope to be understood.
We tried to fit years of friendship into mere weeks.
And I guess that none of it was par hasard but actually from a volonté to find community in an unfamiliar place,
and I wish I had found it earlier but I know it came at exactly the right time.
I know it taught me something about myself and about others and about the relationships you have with people.
And I think when I’m back to the cold and rainy days of my life in Glasgow I’ll still be on that bench, wishing I could never leave the feeling of finding a piece of myself in a foreign place,
with people I would otherwise never have had the privilege to meet.
There’s a quote about travelling, which says that you’ll never be home again, some part of you will always be somewhere else, and that is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place. And I think that quote has never applied to anything as much as it has to this.
In a few months, the time we spent together will be less than the time we’ve spent apart, and yet I think I’ll carry the weight of it with me everywhere I go.
Somewhere, even in my memories, we’re still getting coffee and debriefing after class, we’re still having spritz night on a Tuesday. Somewhere, even in my memories, we still have more time.