Sunset With a Stranger on the Beach

Transcript

Well, I thought I was the only one avoiding the festivities at the resort. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. Yeah, a walk on the beach at sunset when everybody else is enjoying that entirely too large buffet just seemed like a good idea.

How about you? I can totally understand that. Quiet time? Are you okay? I mean, forgive me for saying, but we're kind of in paradise and you look a little down.

Why don't I believe that? I think I've had a few more trips around the sun than you. I can tell when somebody is trying to be brave.

It's okay. Do you maybe want to walk with me? It's a gorgeous night and, well, we won't get too many more of these, I don't think.

Yeah? Alright. Isn't that ocean spectacular? It's not too choppy tonight, it's so pretty, and you can't beat the scent.

I don't know about you, but I sleep like a baby. Are you local, or? I thought I saw you at the resort, but that doesn't mean anything around here.

Vacation? Yeah. With your family? Mm-hmm.

They're all back at the- ah. Fair. That buffet was huge, and, uh, this is about the time that everybody either heads to the bar or to the pool because it's all lit up.

Fair. Well, I understand that. Too many people.

Yeah, it's overwhelming, isn't it? Well, when there's so many people around you, you can't think straight. And they all want to do things that you have no interest in doing, or you do them for a little while and you're done, but they just want to keep going.

Like swimming or drinking or playing games or running around chasing each other with sand. Mm-hmm. Oh, I get it.

You like the quiet. Yeah. Me too.

Me too. I'm here with a bunch of people from work. No.

No, it's not a work trip, as in the company didn't send us. It was a bunch of co-workers decided we needed a vacation, and we all had time off at the same time, which rarely happens, so we got a package deal through the company travel agent, and here we are. Yeah, well, in theory, it's a good team building exercise, I guess.

I mean, we all kind of hang out outside of work anyway a little bit, but you never really know anybody until you travel with them. Yeah. They like to party a little bit more than I do, a little bit harder than I do.

Let's just put it that way. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

I mean, I keep up as much as I can for as long as I can, kind of like you with your family, and then I just need to sort of regroup. Quiet time. But because there's three of us in one room and four of us in the other, there's not a lot of quiet time to be had, you know?

Yeah, you get it. Mm-hmm. I bet.

Yeah. So are you having any fun on this vacation? I mean, it is paradise after all.

Entirely too many people aside. Yeah? Mm, isn't that just the most perfect feeling? Mm-hmm.

Well, this time of day seems to be the best time to be at the beach, because everybody's at the resorts doing whatever they're doing, even though it's the most beautiful time. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I came down here last night with a book.

I just sat and read until the light was bad and then went back to my room. Yeah. Your family doesn't understand.

Do you want to talk about it? Okay. Well, as someone whose family has never understood them and wasn't shy about it, I think I have a little bit of insight in this area.

Yeah. Yeah, I was always the one that they looked at as being a little bit odd, and that's probably an understatement. So, if you want to talk about it, I have an ear that you can use.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. I'm sorry.

Mm-hmm. I'm sorry they just don't understand. You seem like a really great person.

Yeah. What book are you reading? Oh, yeah? Are you enjoying it? Mm-hmm.

Not readers, huh? Yeah, I know that pain all too well. What else do you like to do? Mm-hmm.

Well, that's fun. That's fun. Yeah.

And they don't get that either. Yeah. Well, you know what? Mm-hmm.

I'm going to tell you what I wish I had learned a long, long, long time ago. And forgive me for being, I don't know, the sage older woman here. I'm not that much older than you.

Screw them. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Do you like who you are? Okay. That's not a great answer.

Do you like the things you like? Mm-hmm. And.

.. Do you have people in your life who like those things about you? Mm-hmm.

Well, you seem pretty fantastic to me, so put me on that list, okay? Yeah. Yeah.

They don't have to get it. They don't have to get it. In fact, as time goes on, it matters less and less if they do or they don't.

If you get it, that's what counts. Oh, totally. Okay.

I'm going to level with you here, okay? I feel like what happens on vacation stays on vacation to a certain extent, but I'm hoping you take something from this. Okay.

When I was young, like, just out of college young, I told my parents that I didn't want to go into the field that I had studied. Mm-hmm. I had just spent four years in school, a boatload of their money, and I came out deciding it was the absolute last thing I wanted to do.

Well, you can imagine how that went over. Like a brick. Just an absolute brick.

Yes, that well. My dad didn't speak to me for two years. Mm-hmm.

But. .. I decided that as much as I care about my family and I love my parents, they don't have to live with me.

They don't have to work my job every day. They don't have to live my life. Right? So I went and got what was probably the worst job ever, just to pay the bills.

Well, I figured out what I did want to do. I had an idea, and I knew it wasn't the most stable thing, but I made it work. And by the time my dad started talking to me again, I had added some new training to my background.

I had paid for it myself, and I was interning with a new company doing what I wanted to do. And actually, the schooling that I had done that they had paid for, even though I wasn't doing what I'd intended, was helping a little bit. It was a skill set that was more adaptable than I thought.

But I was able to figure out what I wanted to do and who I was without their help. And in fact, if I had stayed living with them and found a job in the field I'd gone to school for, I probably would have been miserable trying to please them. You know? Yeah.

You get it. Don't be anybody but who you are. Please.

It's not healthy, first of all. And second of all, it rarely works out. Yeah.

The things that make us unique, the things that people find odd about us, are usually our superpowers. Mm-hmm. Well, one of mine happens to be that I can talk to absolutely anybody.

Everybody always told me when I was growing up that I shouldn't be able to just go up to anybody and start a conversation. It was strange. I was just weird.

Oh, yeah. But. ..

it has served me well. Mm-hmm. So what do you like to do that people find odd? Mm-hmm.

And why do you like to do that? Well, the way you just lit up talking about it, I can see that it means a lot to you. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.