A warm front in San Diego was passing though along with a
urology convention. It was the first
hot, sunny day in May and another busy lunch shift was upon us. At the convention’s noon break time, the line
at the host stand quickly developed and flowed out the door and onto the
boardwalk. Although we were prepared for
the lunch rush, it was still difficult to maneuver among the swarming doctors
and focus.
In the midst of the crazy rush, I greeted a table of three
somewhat grumpy men who were all wearing name badges; complete with what city
they were from. I looked at the first
one and it said, “Orange, CA” which is where I was born and raised. I decided even though I was busy, I had to
mention this to make a connection and to see if I could get any of them to possibly
cheer up.
I looked at him. “Are you from Orange? That’s where I’m
from! Which area exactly?” He answered unenthusiastically, “Well, I
moved there a couple years ago. It’s a nice community.” Okay...Well
that didn’t change his demeanor much, but at least I tried. I decided to look at the next doctor’s name
badge. It read ‘Washington D.C.’ I
couldn’t help myself and I said, “Oh nice.
D.C. My cousin recently moved out
there. She’s enjoying it a lot. Beautiful city.” The doctor responded, “Well, yes, it
nice. Not quite like San Diego.” To which of course I replied, “Nope. No city is quite like San Diego.” I looked at the third doctor’s badge and it
read ‘Toronto.’ A big smile came over my
face. I looked at the Toronto doc and
said, “I actually used to date a guy from Toronto.” At this point, I finally got a chuckle out of
them all. Yes! Success. He looked at me and asked with a smile,
“Seriously?” I told him he was actually
from Burlington (a suburb of Toronto) and I’d been there to visit his family
and friends, including a quick day trip to Niagara Falls. The man from Orange
jokingly said, “Well he used to live
in South America.” Now I chuckled. “You’re not
going to believe this but I honestly used to live in South America.” Shocked, the doctor from Orange looked up and
me and said, “Actually that was a joke.” I replied with, “Well, I liked it. It was definitely fitting.” I decided to change the subject and get their
order’s taken. It was busy and they were
on a time crunch. “Okay, enough
bonding. Now, I know you’re hungry so
let’s order.”
Not that it’s that
bizarre to have commonalities with three random strangers. It’s just that it all happened so
unexpectedly and so quick. Funny how
just knowing a city where someone is from (or just moved to) can easily strike
up a conversation. It’s remarkable what
one simple common bit of information can do to easily bring people
together.
I love when this happens. And on that note…
While I was dropping off their checks, I asked them to
confirm if they they were urologists.
Dr. D.C. responded, “Yes. We are
actually pediatric urologist.” No way.
I grinned again. I had to say
it. “I actually had chronic kidney infections growing up and had to have
surgery when I was eight years old.” Dr.
D.C. replied, “Oh. You had reflux.” He was spot on. “Yes I did.
You’re good.” As I brought their
credit card slips out, I thanked them for coming in and then said, “And thank you doctors, as well, for saving
lives.” A bit dramatic, maybe, but I was
serious. A pediatric urologist did save
my life. I felt I owed them a sincere
thank you as if I was saying thank you to their entire medical community. Perhaps
I should have been their keynote speaker.
Now they learned even more about me; a stranger, their server. Someone they wouldn’t normally even think
twice about. I’m sure I didn’t make too
much of a difference in their day. At
the very least I hope I made their lunch more enjoyable.
But more important, they made my day more meaningful. Perhaps this is why I make the effort to bond with my guests. Not only to serve humanity, but to serve myself in a way.
Maybe I need it more than they do.
