on fate and macau
i met carol at my last job. she was the lead ux designer on a project and i was her tpm. none of this really matters but i like details and everyone in my life is important.
i remember us telling each other we're from hong kong.
and then we both paused in a corporate beat, where your eyes search the other person like, is this person chill. is it worth sharing more. should i even bother, will you see me or will i need to take on a freelance cultural ambassador role.
and i said, i'm actually from macau, i just say hong kong because it's easier. and she said. funny, because i'm from macau and i think i know you.
it turns out that we're literally from the same island in old macau (st. lawrence and st. lazarus respectively) and we don't know each other (we think, still unconfirmed) but we're honestly guessing our parents do. the island is small. my grandparents had an antique store and a fabric store and rumors are that my great-grandfather was the mayor or something. asian parents can be very vague on memory.
moments like this reinforces my unwavering belief in fate. that there's something so magical about living. that the universe will always find ways to remind you how deeply connected you are.
tangent: i am not at all religious but i had this frankly unhinged 'quest for christ' stage in high school. like full sherlock holmes trying to see if mans was real.
back to macau, i've been going back home more and more lately with a blooming notion that i can stay. we can stay. carol worked in hong kong before moving to new york. i think i'd like to try that.
i feel comfortable in my bus routes, have my favorite noodle restaurant, my climbing gym, and understand now that the sauna i tried to walk into was actually a brothel. my phone is in cantonese, my xhs is in mandarin.
learning mandarin is actually incredibly hard even as someone who can read chinese but we can go on that journey later.
here are some pretty pictures i took around my house:
