fish out of water

The last fish out of water experience that I had took place last year at De Anza community college, the quarter before I transferred to San Jose State. It was a bright and sunny spring day where I was spending my lunch hour sitting in the sunken garden by the library. Apparently at the same time, a club event was going on around the same area. Among the many students that were leisurely lounging around in the spring sun on the benches, and on the grassy field, several people were standing, some were in small groups discussing, while others were roaming, gravitating towards the students that were there before them. I was seated at a bench, under a quite corner shaded by trees and accompanied by ducks as I was flipping through a Japanese magazine with buds blasting with music tucked in my ears. Suddenly one of the people who were roaming around makes her way towards me. She was a middle-aged Asian woman, who was dressed in a nice button up shirt and black slacks. Tucked in the fold of her arm was a file folder, she towed a smaller and older Asian woman behind her. For someone who doesn’t like to talk to strangers, I was already feeling a bit uncomfortable when she smiled as she made her way towards me. At first the words that came out of her mouth were mute because of the music I was listening to, but out of politeness I had to pull one out and ask her to repeat her statement again. She asks if I would allow her to talk to me for a few minutes, and being a person who doesn’t like to turn people down, I agreed. She seats herself next to me on the bench and introduced herself as a woman from a near by Korean Christian church, and that today they were having an open event where they gathered and informed people. Her companion takes a seat at the end of the bench next to her. She first asks me if I’m Christian or Catholic. Still a bit uncomfortable, I tell her that I’m Buddhist, despite the fact that I’m only a Buddhist in name and not in practice. She pulls out a sheet of paper from the folder and produces a pen out of her pocket. She held the paper in the same manner a teacher would in explaining a worksheet. She starts explaining the contents, about how if you are faithful enough, God will forgive you of your sins. She asked me for personal stories and I told her about my brother’s behavior, and she applied it to her paper. I respect other people’s religions and belief but from the spontaneity of this all, I was starting to feel out of place, and it was quite difficult for me to pay attention and understand what she was talking about. I found myself checking my cell phone frequently, the time drew near for my math class, and while she was explaining to me. I wanted to tell her that I had to go so many time, but being someone who can’t handle being rude to people I stayed with her and listened to everything she had to say until she finally said that she had to go, ten minutes before my class started.

Although it took place on the campus that I was so familiar with, that one moment seriously made me feel as if I was somewhere unfamiliar.