Sophie invited me to join her on a diving expedition, springing for my passage on an island tour, where I snorkeled in crystal clear waters while she practiced diving skills with various instructors. They served us coffee, pineapples, pork chops, and cake. It was an unimaginable luxury. Sophie will have a chance, in exchange for a little work and a little money, to repeat this experience six days a week for the next month or two.
After forty-three days and three countries it’s time to say goodbye. Sophie will stay behind in the pleasantly bustling coastal city of Nah Trang to finish her training as a Dive Master while I head north, up the sparkling blue coast to Hoi An. It’s been fun having a companion, especially one so inclined toward random adventures, but although we hope to travel together again someday; it’s a pleasant parting for both of us. Even as we find comfort and security in our partnership, as well as the convenience of splitting a few expenses, we both bristle equally at compromise and recognize, perhaps too acutely for our own good, the freedom that we trade for this friendship. If I’ve had one insight on this journey, one gut-level realization, it would have to be that one can live whatever type of lives one wants, the vast world of possibilities is wide open, but with the limiting clause that every attachment shrinks those options, forces concessions. So I’ll say goodbye to my friend Sophie and be happy that I know her and take a deep breath as my day to day range of possibilities expands back to its original dimensions.
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