So... What's your story?
I don't know if it's because I'm reading Kerouac's On the road again or because I'm jobless at the moment (hence too much time to think), but as I was coming out of the métro tonight with Barbara singing "Dis, quand reviendras-tu" in my headphones and the cold air brushing my thoughts away, this question suddenly came back from deep deep inside my head and struck me as the best question to ask anybody on Earth.
The first time I was asked was back in 2001 by a guy who was way too old for me and to whom I couldn't find anything interesting to say. By that time I hadn't lived. Or so I thought. I was merely 20 and just went blank when it was time to tell stories about me. How silly.
Later in 2003, I was asked the same unnnerving and mysterious question, by an American girl of Persian descent called Rosita whom I was meeting for the first time. We were driving across America with my great friend (and probably favorite American person) Christen and had all the time in the world to discuss our stories.
All of a sudden, my life came into perspective and even though I hadn't done much, I understood that your life doesn't depend on the things you do or achieve (the good old "been there, done that") but on who you decide to be.
Cause if you decide to be curious and thorough about things, it will inevitably lead you to want to do stuff, see places and create your own stories.
As Rosita was listening to me telling my hunger for travels and my optimistic hopelessness about boys, I was far from imagining that her eagerness to know about me was hiding an absolutely incredible life of hers - a life that she is probably still living over in America today.
That day, the thirteen hour drive from North Carolina to Tennessee went by in a flash and I realised that if I wanted to try and become a good person, I should become like Rosita.
Don't you think it very frustrating when you're by yourself somewhere in the middle of a crowd and you're watching people go by, imagining their lives... and you actually never get to know them...
Next time you meet somebody new, try and ask that question. Others' stories make you learn and make you wanna move your butt and do things. Sometimes they bore you or piss you off, but you still listen to them, because well, not everyone is Rosita and we're all made of the bits and pieces we gather around.
So, now that you've read the gibberish I've been trying to explain, will you tell me one thing...?
What's YOUR story?
