“Everywhere I travel, tiny life. Single-serving sugar, single-serving cream, single pat of butter. The microwave Cordon Bleu hobby kit. Shampoo-conditioner combos, sample-packaged mouthwash, tiny bars of soap. The people I meet on each flight? They're single-serving friends. Between take-off and landing, we have our time together, but that's all we get. ”
Fight Club (1999)
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Months ago I had a very eye-opening experience.
Tinder.
One word and you’ve already made assumptions about what I’m going to say next, right? Well, this was different. No drinks, no parties, no sex. It was quite nice. It was everything you would never expect from a Tinder date, actually.
This guy and I had a lot of fun. We went to the museum and to dinner and then we just talked. A lot. We talked about everything. Our crazy pasts, the things we think made us the people we are today, our goals, what we want to change about ourselves, our futures. We hit it off and we shared things we wouldn’t usually talk about on first dates. We both came to a conclusion, though, that we would never hang out again. Not because we didn’t like each other or that we didn’t have chemistry because we did, but that we didn’t have to. We got the most out of our time together that we could have over various dates.
Have you ever ran into someone while standing in line at a concert and become instant friends, follow each other on social media, but never actually see them again? Yeah, that’s what happened. A single serving friend, the one that you only need once but satisfies you. I was satisfied with our time together and our conversations. We had conversations that really made me look deep into myself to answer very difficult questions. We had conversations that really sparked something in me to be a better person, to love myself more, and to care less about what others think. I've changed for the better because of him.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: I believe there are people we are meant to be with for a period of time, one by one making each other better people through various experiences. Sometimes it doesn’t take long for those people to serve their purpose. One night with this young man has changed my life. I asked myself questions that were too hard to face alone and I feel so grateful for that experience.
So, to that guy that I met months ago, thank you. Thank you, for sharing a little piece of you that doesn’t come out often. Most importantly, though, thank you for making me do the same.
