I’ve never experienced anything like this before.
Have you ever imagined a stranger coming up to you and asking if you could be friends with her/him? My younger self must have imagined something like that at least once🤣 some of the reasons might stem from coming of age movies, which aren’t even realistic because they’re just stories. Especially in this digital age, I find like it’s becoming increasingly rare for people to approach others directly. At one point, I thought no one actually did that anymore.
Until a few weeks ago, I experienced one of the most awkward moments ever. I was at the public library on a Friday. It wasn’t the library I often visited, which is located in the city center, this one is a bit further away. I rarely go to this particular public library because I find their Wi-Fi never works well. Since I often come to the library to get things done, having a stable wifi connection is a must. However, the atmosphere in this library is quieter than the one I often visited, so I when I don’t really need a wifi connection, I’ll choose to go to this library instead.
I was working on my freelance design and wearing my earphones, when someone came over and tried to talk to me. She asked about my tablet–what brand it is, and is it recommended for school or not, etc. She definitely looked younger than me and turned out she was a college student. I didn’t really have much information about my tablet, as I only use it for writing in Google Docs, organize things in Google Drive, designing on Canva, and just browsing websites. She also asked if it could be connected to a projector for class presentations. I told her there weren't any jacks for that sort of thing. Some people might forget that a tablet is just a larger version of a phone, so we can't expect it to work like a laptop.
After that, she thanked me and left. We were in the same room, but she was behind me so I wasn’t facing her. And then there were a few kids who doing a study group session, and the voice of the library staff who teached them was loud enough that I could still hear her even I wore my earphones–probably also because the room is quite small. So I moved to another table in the open space area. This library was never too crowded that could makes us feels uncomfortable, so even though I was in a more open area, there weren’t many people around, so I could focus.
Here's the moment.. the girl who had asked about my tablet came to my desk and handed me a piece of paper. For a moment, I was so confused because I thought it was still about tablet, then a few seconds later I realized that she was just handing me a letter like an elementary student who wants to convey something to her friend or something like that😁 when I realized that, I smiled because it was so cute. Then she left without saying a single word, and I read the letter. If I can translate it correctly (hopefully without exaggerating anything), it sounds like this:
“Hello, my name is Lia. I like seeing you, (because) you are like a character on my Wattpad, calm but determined. I hope what you strive for and desire will come true. Keep up the good work!”
I’m not lying, I probably blushing more than when a boy texted me lol🤣 I’ve never experienced anything like this. She is definitely in her Wattpad era, isn’t she?😁 I mean, why doesn’t she just tried to talk to me once again to exchange our social media usernames or something like that. She was probably afraid I’d be busy, so she choose to wrote a letter instead. How sweet! even writing about it now still makes me smile like an idiot.
Looking calm is probably one of my favorite compliments to received. It was so touching that she think I’m calm when I needed to hear it the most. Recently, I watched a Korean survival show where some of the casts were able to remain calm even under an intense pressure. So I kept wondering “ah, I want to be that kind of person. How can I be a calm person when faced with problems?” and things like that.
So, when a complete stranger who doesn’t know me at all, stated that I’m calm just because of how it looks, there’s some fire burns inside me–that sometimes I keep looking for what I’m lacking, when in reality, I’m already doing enough as my self and to control my emotions.
These days, I’ve been mentally beating myself up–focusing on the things I’ve failed to manage and forgetting the things I’ve accomplished. Reading that letter, even though it was simple words and perhaps trivial to some people, but I felt a bit proud of my self. Maybe I don’t need to be so hard on myself, maybe I’ve trying my best all this time. Because how could a stranger called me “determined” just by how I probably look? It doesn’t make sense to me until now, but I’m so grateful she wrote that letter.
She also wrote her instagram username and the title of her new Wattpad series that will be launching by the end of this month. I actually considered to approaching her while I was still in the library, but I felt really awkward and afraid of bothering her. So I just sent her a DM to thank her for the letter and tell her that I’m excited for her new Wattpad series too.
It was honestly one of the weirdest yet wholesome moments I’ve ever experienced, so I want to remember it by writing about it here haha thanks for reading as always :)