Sitting on a stone wall at the beach in Qurm, Muscat, Oman. As I'm admiring the 6v6 beach soccer happening right in front of me, an older white tourist with the demeanor of a surfer dude appears next to me and breaks the silence, "you look like you want to play."
"A part of me wants to", I respond. "Go for it, you should," he replies. I stay silent and ponder the thought. A couple mins pass by and when I turn to see if this guy is still standing, he's gone. Moments later I jump down from the stone wall and begin walking again. In front and behind me is nothing but beach. Yet this guy is no where to be seen. I start wondering about his remark to encourage me to join the beach football.
Upon reflection it feels like one of those moments when you scale back to think of your action(s) and how they can reflect or even shape a personality. In recognizing this hours later, I realize that the guy and I had a verbal exchange of 25 words in the span of seconds and in that exchange we acknowledged two important things: an interest in communicating with potentially like minded people, and a desire to to belong.
Whether I fully understood at the time or not, I certainly realize now that the guy (directly or indirectly) challenged me to challenge myself; to stop pondering and start acting. Make a move or not. More importantly, there is no right or wrong answer but such choices define opportunities and how we chose to perceive them.
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