Valya’s Blog

I recognize that most of the time when I consider something to be a sign, it is merely a circumstance or coincidence I ascribe more specific importance to as a result of a self-centered outlook. Yet, I will indulge in this little nugget: At Starbucks today, the one that’s near the office where I go sometimes to work (when I have writing or editing I need to concentrate on) or to read on my lunch break, I sat across a stranger. A stranger who doodled on his Starbucks napkin with an ink pen – the same kind of pen and style of writing (although he was mostly drawing) that was written on a napkin a few weeks ago when I sat there working. That left-behind napkin of a few weeks ago had a fateful message (what do you want of this life?) and I read it as a sign that I should make a more concerted effort when it comes to grad school aspirations. Today, I couldn’t help but smile thinking this may have been the same person who left behind that first message. I was reading “What to Do with Your English or Communications Degree” book on grad schools. How fitting.

The stranger did not leave a napkin behind this time around. He did disappear quick quickly and unnoticeably, though, very fittingly mysterious. He wore jeans and flip flops (the thong kind), sported a beard, was probably in his late 20s, and tucked his legs on the chair as he sat sipping his Starbucks drink from a bright red paper cup with a white holiday snow scene etched in the seasonal design.