A pleasant surprise

Usually the people sitting next to you on a plane are individuals you would never want to be associated with or speak to. And before you judge me, think about it for a minute... For example, I once sat next to a man on a cross country flight you told me that I must be looking forward to the in-flight meal because it was chicken teriyaki and I would naturally love chicken teriyaki. I'm half Japanese. For the record, I loathe teriyaki. I won't even eat it when I'm in Japan. Back to the present. If you've read the description of this blog, you can guess that my political leanings are to the left. So, imagine my initial thoughts when I discovered the young man sitting next to me was going to enter his final year as a cadet at West Point. Turns out I had the best plane conversation ever. We had a very engaging and ride ranging discussion; we covered home towns, careers, vacations, his love of Ibsen plays, why plays and novels are so fantastic (you get to use your imagination), the best parts of foreign travel, favorite college memories, the benefits of the Japan Rail pass, the regional cliques at West Point, the criteria at Annapolis that 2/3 of every class must have 20/20 vision (who knew?), the superstition that if it rains at commencement ceremonies at West Point that class is going to war (it did not rain at this years commencement). I found out Devin is a pre-med major and has taken his MCAT's. He's waiting for his score. He's from Kalispell, MT and spent the last 2 spring breaks in Korea and Japan. He has a girlfriend in WV. He hopes to be an internist or a pediatrician. Apparently, it has rained on every training assignment his class has had in the past 3 years.

As we walked off the plane I wished him luck. In my head I'm wishing him acceptance into med school and no rain on graduation day.