Madame metro

Last Thursday I was heading out of the metro and walked past a guitarist who was packing up her stuff for the evening. "Are you free on Saturday," I asked, "I'm having a house party and we need to some live entertainment." So, we exchanged contact info and made the plans for her to come play for an hour at my party.

Saturday, 10 pm. With the lights dimmed and candles setup around the room, she began to play for the 20 or so people who came to my party. Her voice was strong and we all wondered how someone of her size projected her voice so powerfully. As she was playing, I sat back and thought about the randomness of hiring a metro musician. Is it typical to invite a metro musician to entertain? No, but why not try it?

The past two years, between living in China and New York, have been the most consistently happy and fulfilling time of my life. Now I'm starting to understand that "why not try it" has been driving a lot of that life satisfaction.

Why not pack up everything and pursue my dreams of living abroad in China and seeing the Great Wall? In the 18 months in China, I learned about an ancient culture and language, tasted wonderful food, traveled to 10 Chinese cities, got firsthand accounts of the nations recent and tumultuous history; and generally transformed my mindset into a truly international one.

Why not try out CouchSurfing? Now that I've tried it in Beijing, Sichuan, and Hong Kong, I can say that it was one of the most fulfilling things I've ever done in that I got to interact with people who have such open and trusting spirits.

Why not move to New York and try out investment banking? The first three months were risky: no insurance, no apartment, $1,500 per month, and no guarantee of a full time position. Taking the risk was worth it, however, and now I'm full time and having a wonderful experience learning how cross-border, mid-market mergers and acquisitions works.

We need to know that our friends and loved ones will be there for us, we need to know where our next meal will come from, we need some level of predictability and stability. Yet, as these past couple of years have reinforced, we must have variety, spontaneity and a little spice in our lives.