Transiting at LAX

This entry was typed when Ping was at LAX, trying to get herself comfortable on the wooden chair.

It is just an airport but Ping have spent quite a number of nights here. The first time Ping came to this airport, Ping was full of hope, happiness, wanting the trip to be something meaningful. It was in May 2004. Great friends dropped us off and that was the last time Ping had so much fun with them. Ping never met 2 of them again. We met only for a short while but they were real friends.

Arriving LAX that summer, Ping and the special someone stayed close to the airport. But from the packing and last minute gathering with friends, we were so tired that we slept most of the afternoon away. It wasn’t until later at night that we met up with Sree and Meena. We never overlapped in college. We met at Campus Kitchen. But they became close friends to Ping. Meena especially. We talked about our guys, clothes, our bitchy boss, family, craps. She was the first, along with Sree who told Ping that when they look at Ping and her guy together, they knew it was love. When they hear Ping’s guy talked about Ping, they could see he loved Ping a whole lot. Ping told Meena about the ups and downs but she said, regardless, she could see he sayang Ping a lot and it would be worth it.

The next day, all four of us met up with Ning, another girl Ping met at CK, who brought us around LA. We walked along the most well-known street in LA, drove by Beverly Hills, ate really good and cheap Thai food, joke, teased, laughed and had the best time of our lives. We took pictures with “Hollywood” but Ping never did get any of them. But it doesn’t matter. Sitting here in Terminal 1 waiting for Ping’s flight back to Detroit, the memories come floating back. With or without the photos, the short time we had here at LA is still fresh.

Today, Sree and Meena is a newly married couple. On that wonderful day, all four of us were unsure of what the future lies for us except that Meena and Ping had a common dream – hers came true just about a week ago. At that time, Sree and Meena just got their first job but were both situated in different part of the States. Ping was going home with her guy. But we were both from different states in M’sia. Ping’s hard work paid off with a successful application to grad school in MSU so Ping’s plan was to come back to Michigan in a few months. He was to find a job back home and stay. The moment we board the plane to go home was the end of making a dream together. We never talked about it. We never ask the question we wanted to ask – asking each other to stay or not to go.

But life is all about taking chances right? While Ping is in a crappy mood because her butt is aching from sitting in uncomfortable chair all night, she is going back to a great research project (not exactly going smoothly but it’s a fun one!) whom she is enthusiastic about, to a lab full of interesting stories (although it’s getting smaller), great American friends (who are totally not like those we used to think Americans are), her own apartment (although it can be lonely sometimes) and her very own life. No doubt, Ping have thought what would it be like if Ping had not come here but what’s the point right? It doesn’t mean the dream Ping had in May 2004 is not achievable, it just may be with a different person and not as soon as it would have been (but who knows, even if Pinghad not come here, it could take even longer!). As the commonly heard phrase, "what is love without suffering? " One could not really appreciate what they have until they lost it.

Back to life in Michigan!

Right now, Ping is enjoying Nora Robert's Chesapeake Blue and two packs of Mamee! Yum yum!