The test

So my blog isn't really a blog I guess so much as it is a quarterly update on my life. I need time to pack all the interesting things into one post so I don't keep you bored with the day to day, although some of the best short stories out there focus on little details of a monotonous life and make it seem remarkable - like stories written by Miranda July. I recommend her collection called "No One Belongs Here More Than You"
I have a hard time these days writing about the things that I am doing, because I just want to do them. And then when I do, things happen surely. Like this recent event that has taught me a great deal about the way in which a person can react to a seemingly bad situation. The story goes like this…

The night of Carly’s birthday was just beginning. Us close friends had gathered to share a drink or two and celebrate the life of a beautiful soul. After all, birthdays are a great reason to come together and cherish the friends you have chosen to surround yourself with in this particular moment in your life. And isn’t that an amazing thing – the fact that we can choose our friends. We gathered at Dos Tacos for some Mexican feasting coupled with Tequila shots for the road. We walked along the busy streets crowded with kebab vendors and all-night uni students while once and a while circumnavigating the pools of vomit with bits of half chewed ramien. We lingered a little too long at club FF and then when the dance floor cleared and the lights turned on at 6AM, we noticed our bag missing. Missing or stolen that is. What to do now but call the police and cross our fingers that the ubiquitous Korean CCTV was indeed working its omnipresent magic. For our bad luck, it wasn’t. Long story short, as the long night turned into midday, we went home empty handed. I cancelled credit cards, changed passwords, cried a little then finally slept. The ensuing four days were a bit of a struggle to stay positive. Although, once I accepted that everything was gone, I seemed to be at peace with these inner workings of the universe. Hmmm. I was sure that this Karma had sought its retribution on the wrong lady. I try and live my life with integrity, honesty, patience, compassion and kindness. In fact, it is hard not to. Even though we all slip from time to time, this was my test. Stay cool. Learn from this.
Four days later, sitting in an orientation for the winter camp I was about to dive head first into, my good friend Theresa whispered, mid-lecture, that someone was calling her from my phone. The phone that was stolen. Passing her phone to me, I excused myself in a fervor of possible happiness and stumbled into the hallway to talk to the person on the other end. An older Korean man had been the one that found my bag – and that of my friend Eli. (it was all attached together when it went missing). Oh how grateful I was to learn that he without a doubt had my phone and the rest of the cargo and could meet me that day to return it.
After a long, pointless orientation and a long haul on the subway, I had this old man in an embrace. Oh thank you sir for finding me and returning everything as you found it. Nothing was gone, nothing was stolen. What happened then? Was it a school boy prank – take the foreigner's bag and drop it off 3 blocks away? Did someone get a fright when they saw the police and ditch it in a nearby alleyway? Who knows – but I had passed this test; this test of sticking to my beliefs and not losing control. This test of integrity, honesty, patience, compassion and kindness. When shit hits the fan so to speak, can you summon your will to be the good person you know you are inside?