First Meeting With Alessandra

I imagine everyone felt some degree of anxiety before meeting with their conversation partner for the first time, and I was no exception. The anxiety was, however, accompanied by feelings of excitement. As if meeting with a stranger wasn't enough of an experience, there was the additional fear that we would not be able to understand each other.

My partner, Alessandra, and I chose the Starbucks on University as the place of our first visit. Originally, I had no clue where Alessandra was from or what language she spoke. I assumed Spanish, a language that I am at least familiar with, though far from fluent. In a later email she informed me that I could spot her by looking for the blue English-Italian dictionary she would be holding. Italian. Oh, boy... I’m not sure that I have uttered one word of Italian in my life.

I was the first to arrive at Starbucks, though I didn't know this.  It was a strange and somewhat embarrassing feeling knowing that I could be standing right next to Alessandra without either of us realizing it.  I had just sat down when a lady walked through the door. Immediately I spotted the pocket sized dictionary she was carrying. She walked past me and I quickly said "Alessandra?”  It was her.

The tone of the conversation immediately started off as though we were old friends meeting up for the first time in ages. It is odd how that works. It was a huge relief that Alessandra spoke near perfect English, and her accent was far from thick.

Our talk started off in a typical fashion.  We discussed where we were from, what we did, why we ended up in Ft. Worth, etc. She had an impressive and entertaining life story. It turns out that she was an Italian lawyer originally. We talked at length about the differences between American and Italian Law School.  I told her that I was an engineering student, which led to whole other conversation about how her husband worked for an energy company and how his job required that he move all around the world.  Alessandra informed me that she had lived in four different countries in her lifetime. She thus spoke Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, and now English. I was impressed.

After the meeting, I thought about how much of a dream Alessandra's life was.  Growing up in Italy, becoming a lawyer, moving all over the world as if in a continuous vacation, it all seemed like the life many of us only fantasize about.  While writing this blog however, I realized that that is the exact impression first conversations often leave. When you first meet a person, you don't spill all of your life’s difficulties and hardships, just like a car salesman doesn't talk about the shortcomings of a car to prospective buyers. A first conversation is indeed a sales pitch for your life, and I must say that if Alessandra's life was a car and she was the salesman, I would have bought it then and there. She completely captured my attention and imagination.  It is my hope, however, that I will learn about the other side of Alessandra's story; the side no one mentions in a first meeting.