There is one thing I like, it’s travelling, and I’m sure you do, don’t you? And thanks to a friend of mine I discover a couple of years ago how to travel using couch-surfing, yes, that’s right couch-surfing and let me tell you, it’s way easier than surfing the waves! In a nutshell, couchsurfing.org is a database bringing together people, either travelling in need of an accommodation, or at home ready to host you, the traveller, and all this simply for the pleasure of sharing or learning about other people and culture, bringing into your travelling that hint of social excitement that makes it so much more interesting. So here I am, a couch-surfer. And you probably wonder by now how does it work? It’s sooo easy, once you know where you will be, you send a request to potential hosts and wait for their reply. So here I was a few weeks ago, waiting for a reply when it came as denied. That happens often, no big deal… except that with the denial came three words, as typed -‘Sorry, TOO OLD.’ I read it again, ensure… because I kind of remember the guy was 26, and between you and me that’s far from being too old to host anyone… and I re-read it, again, the letters kind of screaming now… and it sunk… right to the bottom… ooohhh. Hum…. I don’t know you but I have never like ‘expiration date’. That’s good for a chicken in the supermarket, not for a chick like me on the market. That’s right! and I suddenly felt really sorry… for that poor lad. Indeed… Imagine…. more than 10 years my junior and already he believes he knows how it is to be my age, he knows it well enough to tell me it does feel too old, he even knows it well enough to already know that at my age he will be too old to be hosted by juniors. I don’t know you, but I can’t help wondering how does he cope waking up everyday, knowing that he has only a few years to go before his own… expiration date… That reminds me that last time I was hosting at my place in Dublin. I hosted a couple from Mexico, 20 year or so older, and geezz it was so cool to see that I could be that young at their age, actually it was mind-blowing. Exactly like this woman, also in her sixties, who I met in Akaroa Island, one day trotting up and down the hill after little penguins, the next day kayaking. Suddenly I felt extremely young, actually just about too young… And too young is good, because you know when you’re too young, you will get there one day. While too old… so that poor guy of 26… What other things has he not done or will not do now that he has set his own expiration date?
So I send him my card! Yeah I like to help and old as he feels he could do good with a young NLP coach like me.
© 2011 Florence Dambricourt – https://talking4good.com/
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