Butterflies for Dinner

I owe a lot to a party-hardy Greek guy I've never met, the snobbish inflexibility of Bristol's English Department administration, and my buddy Troy Long.

As far as I can tell, they're the reasons I ended up debating the intersections of science and religion over wine and bolognase with James and Fran Bragg, British parents who had invited me to have dinner with them.

Let me explain.

So many random things had to happen to land me there.

For instance, I had to be both friends with Troy Long as well as an English major.  One without the other would not suffice.  Because through Troy, I met a guy from Chile named Andres.  On the very first weekend, we three went out for a burger/beer at a pub.  There, I learned Andres was an English major.  And like me, he was enrolled in Approaches to Shakespeare -- in which my own enrollment happened simply because all the other classes I wanted to take were fully booked.

And still I didn't want to take Shakespeare.  It was a first-year class that I snobbishly thought was below me.  But because the administration was even more snobbish in not letting me in anything else (their snobbishness > my snobbishness), I guess my having dinner with the Braggs could be traced all the way back to the English admin's snobbish inflexibility.

Anyway.  Because I was involved in Shakespeare, I got to be friends with Andres.

Andres told me about this place called BISC -- the Bristol International Student Center.  He was going to Stonehenge through a BISC-arranged trip.  I thought this was awesome.  I wanted to go.

But I procrastinated signing up.  When I eventually did, I had to scramble to get my money in on time or else risk losing my spot.  Because I felt guilty for procrastinating, I got to BISC really early -- before any of the other international students swarmed in.  Because I got to BISC so early, I got a tour from Hannah.  She introduced me to this program called Local Link.   It connects study abroad students with local British families.

This is getting complicated.

But there's more.

I'm only here for a semester, and I was very low on the Local Link priority list.  Luckily, a Greek guy ahead of me partied too much and had to go home.  I got bumped up just enough to be invited by the Braggs.

But the Braggs were very far away from where I lived.

Luckily, I'm also friends with Troy Long.  In addition to being my friend, Troy is also a cyclist.  In addition to being my friend who's a cyclist, Troy is also one of the most helpful people I've ever met.  In addition to being my friend who's a cyclist who's one of the most helpful people I've ever met, Troy and I talk a lot over gmail.  In addition to being my friend who's a cyclist who's one of the most helpful people I've ever met who talks with me over gmail, Troy offered to let me borrow his bike.  In addition to --

So you get the idea.  (I've never really liked the 12 Days of Christmas).

I used Troy's bike to get to the Bragg's house.   I got very lost.  I was cycling through parts of Bristol I'd never seen and will never see again.  I stopped at a Spaghetti restaurant and a crowded pub to ask for directions.

Because Troy's bike was so fast, I made it to the Braggs only ten minutes late.

I talked Pokemon and High School Musical with their kids.  I listened to Mr. Bragg in his music recording studio.  They showed me pictures from Kenya, which was very apt because I'm looking to deploy laptops in Kenya this summer.  It was such a genuine experience that rested on the smallest little tweaks of events.

Often, the best way to appreciate a wonderful experience is to trace back just how many things had to chain together to make it possible.  To realize how the smallest and most insignificant things govern our lives.  This phenomenon is known as the Butterfly Effect.

We never really know where these tiny adventures will take us.  But they do prove one thing.  Those who are open to new people, those who give and are given to in return, those who actively seek opportunities, those who ask questions and are hungry for knowledge, those who (as Troy's dad deems) are "risk-ready" even though that means sometimes being nervous, will most definitely be the people who -- somehow, someway -- end up with the coolest experiences.

The butterflies in their stomachs are the butterflies they end up having for dinner.

And let me tell ya, them butterflies be downright delicious. 

Infinitley variable, delightfully unexpected, they're the purest ingredients of life.