#ngenuous

I met him in the hostel during my brief stay in Chicago. To be honest, I approached him because he was the only other Asian person in the hostel. I’m glad I did because I ended up spending most of my trip with him. We talked about our careers a lot. He bounced around a bit between majors in college before deciding to pursue the medical field. “I never thought about going to med school, but then my dad got sick with cancer. I had to take him to the doctor many times over the years, and that opened my eyes to the profession. I saw how invested he was in my dad. I decided to go into the medical field because I want to develop those long-term relationships with my patients and see them progress over time.” I’ve been struggling recently with finding out what I love to do, but meeting Andrew gives me some comfort in knowing that this spark of passion could come at any time. Just be ready to go after it when it comes.

Ramonia was my first Lyft driver in Chicago. She was born and raised in Chicago and has been driving passengers for over a year now. I always ask my drivers if they have any interesting stories of passengers they wanna share. “I had a passenger the other weekend who asked me to be his private driver for the weekend. I was so shocked I didn’t know how to react but I told him I don’t think Lyft would let me do that.” I asked why she didn’t just take the money and drive him around privately. “Good point. I will keep that in mind for next time haha. I was so flattered that I freaked out.” I asked her if she was a Cubs fan or a White Sox fan. “If you’re from the South, you’re a Sox fan. If you’re from the North, you follow the Cubs.” She also lives a few blocks from Obama’s house in Chicago. “I hate it. I hate it when he comes home because the Secret Service blocks off entire streets and I can’t even get into my own house.” I would hate that too.

It was my first time using the train in Chicago. I must have seemed lost because an elderly man asked me where I was headed. He was wearing a pink hat and a green backpack that was pulled tight to his back. We ended up getting off at the same stop, but I missed my transfer train so we started talking. “What are you doing in Chicago?” he asked. “There’s a bunch of white people here.” I told him it was an early birthday present to myself. I asked him what his favorite part about Chicago was. “I grew up in Chicago and live here now with my wife. My favorite part about this city are the parks. They’re beautiful. However the city is changing and not like it used to be. North Chicago is the rich side, and South side is the poor side. But the South is now changing and becoming more affluent, which is both a good and bad thing.” Gentrification is happening everywhere apparently. “It’s affecting our cities diversity and driving out all the people of color.” We started talking more, then I realized why he was so nice to me on the train. He adopted a Vietnamese son, who happened close to my age now. I asked if he was a part of the Vietnam War. “I fought against the war when I was a grad student. I was lucky I didn’t get drafted because I had poor eyesight.” He has a bucket list of places that he wants to visit with his wife before he gets too old to travel, which reminds me I need to start crossing off more items off mine. Thank you Jerry and your pink hat.

He sat next to me on my flight to Denver. He and his family were coming back home after a trip to San Francisco. I told him I live in Hayward, where there’s not much to do. “I used to live in Hayward. I live in a small town in Colorado now. You’re lucky you even have grocery stores. I have to drive 30 minutes to get groceries sometimes.” He took his kids to San Francisco because they don’t get to see the city often. I don’t know when I’ll have kids. “I was 27 when I had my first one.” Well that gives me two years.