Thomas L. Friedman wasn't kidding around when he said the world was flat. Four years ago, when I was a wee young 'un in high school, an exchange student from Estonia came to my high school to spend a year experiencing the American culture and lifestyle (he was a big fan of Homecoming and Halloween in particular as I recall). His name was Marko and we ended up going to prom together that year. When he left for Estonia that summer (2009) we decided to stay in touch over Facebook as best we could.
Time passed, as usual, and Marko rarely used or visited Facebook--it simply isn't as popular in Estonia as it is in other parts of Europe and in the States. We fell more or less out of touch.
Then, sometime during the beginning of this semester, around mid January, I messaged him saying that I would be in Madrid for the spring semester and--fingers crossed--that hopefully we would have an opportunity to meet up. He thought that sounded like an excellent plan.
We both dropped the idea after that and didn't say another word to one another.
Until Tuesday last week (the 21st) when he messaged me saying that June 1st was coming up very soon and that soon I'd be home in the States and thousands of miles away . . . so could he come visit for the weekend to catch up and spend some time in Madrid? He'd never been here before.
Now, this is the beauty of being young. I have no obligations, no strings attached, nothing to keep me from practicing my independence and ultimate autonomy in all things. So of course I said, "Sure! Come crash on our couch for a few days!"
And that's precisely what we did. Here's where the flat world part comes in: we reconnected via Facebook, within a matter of hours Marko bought his tickets online, and on Friday he took a boat to Finland and a plane from Finland to Madrid, where I met him at the airport. Let the weekend commence!
I found it amazing that someone I hadn't talked to in four years came thousands of miles (2,300 in case you were wondering) to hang out in one of Europe's greatest cities for the weekend, and all in just a split second decision. I love being young. Viva la fiesta.
Bravo! But it isn't absolutely necessary to be young to do these things! It's just that the young tend to have fewer commitments. I recall the case of an amateur chess player who received an invitation to play in an important tournament and quit his job to go; not everyone will be that flexible, but some older folks will.
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