Friend #20 - Christine

It was a beautiful evening in downtown Mesa.  Spring was just starting to melt into the heat of the summer.  I’d been invited to the Mesa Arts Center for their Season Preview, a rather exclusive event.  When I entered the theater, I had to take a moment to adjust my perception.  A group of round tables covered in white tablecloths were gathered onto the stage.  A flamingo dancer was performing to the sound of a solitary guitar.  I was in awe as I made my way up onto the stage, as if I were entering into the performance, itself. 

I was standing in line for the buffet when someone from the Mesa Arts Center introduced Christine to me.  We both work in the same industry and had come to the event alone.  I’m sure it seemed like an easy pairing…and it was. 

While we waited in the lengthy line, Christine told me she had only been in Phoenix for the past two and a half months.  She was working in San Diego when the opportunity came up for her to transfer to Phoenix, which is a bigger market.  She said she already loved it here, that she was still feeling like she was on vacation.  And her smile told it all.  Christine has a very easy way about her that draws you in, a calming presence that reminds you of the girl next door.  She’s quick witted, a sharp judge of character…and she was an easy friend in a room where I didn’t know anyone else.

Over dinner, Christine told me she had moved to a small village in Spain after college with a job to teach English.  The transition into that adventure had been more difficult than the move to Phoenix.  In Spain, she had been surrounded in a new place with a different culture.  She had been immersed in a language that she knew but had never been exposed to in such an all-consuming way.  Yet she loved it.  And she saw the adventure through.  And when it was done, she moved back to her hometown of San Diego not really knowing what to do next.

But true adventurers always find a new journey and Christine fell into a new career in San Diego.  When the opportunity came up to move to Phoenix, it just felt right to move.  When she was invited to this event, she came alone, not knowing what to expect. 

Our conversation was cut short that evening as the presentation we came for began.  And at the end of it, Christine and I walked out of the theater together.  She wanted to hit the restroom.  I was being lured across the breezeway by the rumor of cupcakes.  And so we parted ways.  I glanced over my shoulder once, watching her disappear into the crowd.  She left, just as she had come, with a natural ease, as if her path had already been set and Christine was simply following it. 

Sometimes life just naturally falls into place like that and the right people just magically appear.  In everyone’s life, we all have moments where we complain about how hard life can be…but it doesn’t have to be that way.  Sometimes it is nice to drift wherever the world takes us... because it is in those moments we often receive the most wonderful gifts.

To be continued…