Have I written about this before?
About five years ago, my sister and I were eating ice cream in the shade of the high rises in the Roppongi district of Tokyo. Across the patio, there was another ‘western’ woman drinking coffee alone. She looked like she was in her late 40’s and wore a worn-in, leather moto jacket. She was paging through a travel guide. I don’t know anything else about her but five years later she is persistently on my mind.
The paths I can take at this stage in my life are infinite. I could get married. I could have kids. I could keep my job forever. I could be single forever. I could quit my job and find a similar one. I could quit my job and become a freelancer. I could go back to school. I could buy a house. I could self destruct. I could move to Denver. I could move to Hawaii. I could move to San Fransisco. I could move to Scotland.
And I would be ok with any outcome … but at least every now and then I want to resemble that woman in Roppongi. Maybe happy, maybe intelligent, maybe engaging, and maybe often finds herself in foreign places drinking a late morning coffee and figuring out where next to wander.
