Day 364 – Dinner in Playa del Carmen

I know Renata through Tanya, they were in the same residency program at Columbia. We clicked from the moment we met – it never stops to amaze me how those things happen – and became close, as it often happens, over the matters of the heart. Renata is Brazilian – blonde, gorgeous, intelligent. When her parents were hosting me in Brazil this past April, I was really impressed by some very beautiful forest paintings on their walls, and I was shocked to learn that those were by Renata… from when she was 6 or something! She also did ballet, singing and dancing when she was a kid. She only pursues the artistic path "recreationally" now, frequenting karaoke bars and making very cool iMovies. She does love her job (she is a pathologist), but she is so obviously artistically gifted that I wonder why she didn't choose to be a full-time artist.

I often ponder the question of what role our parents play in our selecting a vocation. I, for one, was heavily influenced by my parents' thought that it would be good for me to have a prestigious at the time degree in Linguistics. In fact, I didn't have any choice in that matter. And not because my parents were "pushing" me in any way – they did no such thing in anything I have ever done in my life, but I remember always knowing without any questioning that I had to follow their choice. Why? No idea. They just managed to instill this idea somehow in me. Is this good parenting? I am still not clear on the subject. In school I was in love with chemistry and math, but I never-ever considered those paths simply because from the early childhood I knew what University and what department I would graduate from. Strange, really. At the same time, I have certainly never regretted the education I had received. I just sometimes wonder…

Renata and her boyfriend Ben are here now. Well, not "here in Cozumel" here, but very close – Playa del Carmen. I have not seen Renata for the whole year since I left and she moved to Dallas; I had never met her boyfriend either. So it was a very exciting and chatty dinner!:) And tasty, too.

P.S. Renata gave me a lovely gift – a coffee table book of… hearts! I have actually been thinking of creating a little book of hearts myself from all the images I have collected on my travels and from friends over the past year. Now I'm even more inspired to do this – it looks absolutely great and flipping through it really does lift your spirits.