Hold My Hand

Looking back, it seems like my whole life has been a manifestation of the existence of a powerful force that some calls God, others, The Universe. Right when a stream hit you very hard, when your eyes are blured with fear and pain, and you have no idea how come you are still standing on you two feets, hope happens from the unexpected hands. That has always been my experience. Looking back now, I can clearly understand and appreciate the magic of those experiences. Here is one of them.

I was eighteen years old, freshly graduated from high school with honors (yeah!!), super excited to embark into the students life at University. The whole summer, I kept looking for an accomodation in the new city where I was moving to. A flatshare preferably because life is better when shared. But none of my atempts was really succesful. I thought I found a place but at the last minute things changed and I found myself back to point zero. I scrolled down all the websites I knew about for such search. I was desperate. But it seems like I was not the only one. I received an invitation from a guy. “If both still at zero option within a week, let´s try to look for a place together, maybe we´ll be luckier if we partner” he said. His name was Thibault.

But it turns out Thibault was luckier than me. He found a place. Left with not much option, I applied for a student accomodation provided by the government (which I should have done long before. But hey! everyone makes mistakes).The bad point was that I was on the waiting list. And by the time I started Uni, I had nowhere  to sleep. Lukckily, Thibault that I barely knew offered to host me for a few days.

I remember feeling so stress, my body started to react from it. Thibault really treated me like a friend and introduced me to some breathing exercices. I still have this image of us in his room. Him laying in his bed and me in the inflatable mattress he had install for me, listening to a relaxing audio book. To be honnest, back then I was not very sensitive to that kind of approach but just the  very idea of such caring gesture on top of hosting me for free, coming from a stranger still blow my mind. As one of his flatmate was planning to move out from the appartment, he even suggested to his landlord the option that I could take that soon to be empty room. But I had the wrong skin color, so I never got that room.

About two weeks after, I finally got a room at the student accomodation provided by the government. And Thibault and I kept in touch. Some time to time, we were meeting out to share dinner together at a restaurant or to hang out at a movie theather, or both and keep each other update about the latest news of our lives.

But life happend, I moved to new cities and countries and changed phones and phone numbers and email adresses and Thibault was never good with social media and we lost track of each other. I have no idea where he lives now (last time I heard about him, he was moving in with his girlfriend). And I don´t really think he ever realized how grateful I was and still am of his gesture.

That pretty much how magic life is. When you think you are screewed with no option left, suddently the sun starts shining, warming you up with some confort and hope. My sunlight during that harsh time was called Thibaut and I am forever grateful for his empathetic and generous soul.