Choices Made From the Gut

A Story by zoeey#808

Just a little story, though not entirely fictional...

It was 1990, and that’s when the story started on a small tropical island. It wasn’t love at first sight. Yes, he felt an inexplicable attraction to her and was especially overwhelmed by her Coca Cola bottle figure (that little red dress on her was just va-va-voom), but he was new on the island, had a new job, and was not looking for complicated. She was not at all attracted to him, perhaps a bit taken with his exotic appearance (and his killer bad boy smile) and there was definitely something mysterious about him that she found fascinating, but she was new on the island, had a new job, and was not looking for complicated.

He arrived on a Wednesday afternoon with a suitcase that contained all of his belongings and found himself in front of a closed door at the apartment he had obtained through his new job. He realised he hadn’t thought of contacting the landlady or his new boss for the key to his new apartment. Just when he was about to look for the note with his boss’s contact data, she was on her way out and noticed the poor guy with his huge suitcase in front of a closed door. She had arrived a couple of weeks earlier and had an apartment in the same building, so she offered to help and showed him the way to the landlady’s house. On the way, they talked about the weather, the Caribbean take-it-easy mode, living new adventures, and the first McDonalds opening in Moscow (in that order). It was just a couple of streets away from the building, but it was enough to initiate the first phase.

They discovered that next to neighbours, they were also colleagues. They got to see each other quite often, and soon he became part of the friend group that she was in. They made trips to the beach, trips to KFC and Pizza Hut, trips to anywhere on the island. The second phase commenced.

Although neither of them was looking for complicated, they were new on the island, with no family nearby, and were surely swept away by the passionate summer nights feeling à la Grease, as it only suited a tropical island. All it took to get them from phase two to phase three was a piñata, a bottle of tequila, and an ocean to go skinny-dipping in the dark.

Soon, love was in the air. But after a while she discovered that she was late and got a pregnancy test. It turned out to be positive. She called him and said they needed to talk. He came over and when he heard the news, he was flabbergasted. She was pregnant with a baby. So much for not complicated. He told her the truth and said he needed time to think about it.

Three months passed with them not speaking to each other. The news travelled fast on the island and soon everyone knew about their situation. There were whispers and rumours. And then one day, she woke up to some noise coming from outside. As apparently no one else was bothered by it, she climbed out of her bed and went downstairs. When she opened the front door, she saw him standing with a radio on his shoulders (he didn’t own a boom box), the radio playing “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”. He turned the radio off, went down on one knee, and took a little velvet box out of his pocket. He said he couldn’t live without her and that he wanted to be there for her and the baby. And right there, at that moment, he asked her to marry him. She said yes and within a month they got married. After five months, I was born on the small tropical island where my parents met. It wasn’t fate or destiny. It was just coincidence.

I grew up a happy child on the island and enjoyed the happy times with my parents. Five years later, I moved with my parents to another small country all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. I was a bit uneasy at first, because of the weird language people spoke, the cold weather, and the creepy fake Santa Clause they had. But I soon got friends, I learned their language in no time, and found out that the only good thing about the creepy fake Santa Claus, was the candy and the presents. There were a couple of other things that I soon learned:

1. The minute the sun starts to shine, people are everywhere in their shorts and t-shirts. And of course, barbecues are organised, even though it is 15 degrees. What matters is that the sun is shining.

2. People are really fond of bread. So fond, they even eat it twice a day. And sometimes even three times a day (!) I started to eat bread too, only once a day though.

3. Most of the times, people find it weird if you’re quiet. Like you have something to hide. They’d rather talk about the weather than having nothing to say.

4. Nine o’clock actually means nine o’clock. Not a minute later, though sometimes even five minutes earlier.

5. And never forget: everywhere you go, you take your coat with you.

The years went by and I experienced lots of firsts. My first medal (not a golden one though, it was actually a medal for participation), the first time I rode a bike (without any help), my first rollercoaster ride, the first time I held my baby brother in my arms, my first big humiliation at school, my first fight (including fists and pulling hair), the first time I decided to go to a friend without telling my parents (and nearly getting grounded for life), my first kiss, the first time I read Harry Potter, my first forgery of a note of absence, my first encounter with a bra, the first time I got detention, my first crush, the first time I got hit by a car while riding my bicycle, my first job, my first sip of alcohol, and my first vacation trip without my parents. I was just a kid like any other kid. But if there was one thing that was bothering me, it was the question of who I was. At school, they made us think about what we wanted to do when we grew up. My choices ranged from karate-teacher to doctor and from wildlife rescuer to travel guide. And when I was forced to make a decision about the rest of my life at the end of secondary school, I didn’t know what to choose. So I chose English language and culture. For the first time in my life I made a choice, not knowing where it would lead me and not really knowing why I made it in the first place. It was a choice I made from the gut.

Looking back at my student years, I learned a great deal and had lots of other firsts. But the most valuable lesson I learned was the lesson about myself. My time at the university challenged me to embark on a journey of self-discovery. I learned that I’m not just a modest dreamer, or a timid adventurer, or a messy perfectionist, or a Dutch foreigner. I am all of these things. And much more. I cannot tell you whether that choice was fate or destiny or just a coincidence. All I know is that I felt it was right. I remember a teacher asking me in my first year where I was from. When I explained the whole story �"as you know by now, to tell you where I’m from takes a bit more than a couple of words�" he looked at me as if he were trying to decide whether I was making it up or telling the truth. And then he said: “There’s something about you.” I don’t know whether that was good or bad. Where I was from or where I was going, had nothing to do with feeling at home at the university. It felt right because I loved English. And because I loved it, I was willing to give it my best shot.