Listening to: Tōth – I Might Be
My prior observations of people on the street were that they were unfriendly. But in my final hours in San Francisco, I had two of the loveliest interactions with perfect strangers that I’ve had in a long time.
I left the hostel at 6pm to go to REI to try on the size 8 version of my current shoes due to my right foot probably having grown too large for my size 7.5 shoes (more on that later). It was a 40 minute walk, and about 5 minutes in, I heard someone shout at me “PCT!!!”. They knew! My first call out in the wild! I looked like a PCT hiker! To a stranger! On the street! In a city!
My new friend told me about her own aspirations to hike the PCT someday. She asked how I was able to do it and I told her I got laid off from my job and had no reason not to anymore. She asked about resupply boxes, training, gear, all kinds of questions, but had clearly already done a lot of research. She walked about 10 blocks past where I think she was actually heading, just to keep chatting. I realized I was probably walking quite fast for her, so I slowed down to a normal human non-PCT hiker pace. Her name was Aisha, a trans woman hanging up posters for an event. She shouted at me to follow her on Instagram when we parted but I didn’t catch what she said her username was before she disappeared into the subway. I think she felt like she didn’t want to take up more of my time, but I would have followed her.
After I tried on the shoes and didn’t end up buying them, I went to “Dumpling Time” near the bus stop. I chose a table in the back corner, so I could lean my backpack against the wall out of the way. My server was named Hunter and after he asked about my backpack, and I told him I was hiking the PCT, his eyes lit up. He asked me all kinds of questions about my gear, about the trail. I asked if I could stay there until my bus came and he told me to stay as long as I wanted. I ordered steamed bao buns, some coconut soup dumplings and a beer.
I don’t know what he actually even charged me for because my final bill total was only $16, and he ended up bringing me some ginger watercress, jasmine tea and mango pudding as well and kept telling me they were on the house. Each time he came back he kept asking more questions about the trail and making sure I didn’t need anything else. I tried to tip him $40 but he took a $10 bill and told me to keep the rest. He then brought back $5 in change and told me he had once traveled and knew it was expensive and wanted me to keep my money and he wanted me to have a good start to my journey. As I was getting my backpack ready to go, he was at another table and I could tell he wanted to say goodbye because he kept looking over, so I took my time getting all my backpack straps together so he didn’t have to rush. He told me to have an amazing adventure and it was such a genuine and kind wish.
Part of this journey will involve meeting people, having these fleeting interactions, and having to let them go. Letting go of the places, the people, the events of the day. There is something so beautiful about these little glimmers of kindness, of goodness, of Light in the world – and something so heartbreaking when they end. But that’s just a part of living – everything is impermanent.
I already know that I’m going to struggle with the constant goodbyes soon enough, but for now, I’m on my way to the trail to start just some of the many, many, many hellos.
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