Conversations That Inspire

A good friend of mine from Penn State recently came back to visit Thailand for a few weeks. He's on the Thai national fencing team and is here for the Asian Qualifiers tournament, which determines whether he gets to go to the Beijing Olympics in August. And he won! So I'm really excited for him. He's so determined to get that Gold medal for Thailand.

The funny thing was that we never really hung out in college, but for some reason whenever we did talk, I would feel a great connection with him. There really are some people that inspires and motivates you, those that remind yourself of what kind of person you want to be, and I guess he's one of those people.

Ever since being back here, which has been for about a year now, I've felt a bit confused sometimes about myself and how I should act around others. I feel that people here are always putting up a front, and it's so fake. It's hard to figure out who's sincere. For me, he is so real, never pretentious. And it reminds me that I should just be myself more around people, because I don't need to please everyone.

We have really great conversations, ones that I can never imagine talking to other people here about, except for the really close friends from high school.

I'm really happy that we managed to catch up after all these years. He's really well-rounded, well-read, and knowledgeable about a lot of things ranging from literature to politics. He's very opinionated and I think that's the best part about him. He's never afraid to speak his mind.

I think we forget sometimes of the type of person we truly like. Sometimes we forget and just accept anybody that comes across our paths. And I'm glad that he reminded me again of what kind of person I like, and more importantly, what kind of person I don't like.