I am happy. The warm sun is setting over the rows of red tiled roofs in Seville Spain. I am sitting with a table of absolute strangers, sharing a plate of food, enjoying the fact that I am connecting to people who are completely different than me. I sit with my two college friends and we talk with a girl from Melbourne, two guys from Sydney, two best friends from Houston, one Colombian girl and another girl from Miami. Our ages range from 18 to 30, and most importantly, our life experiences are wildly different. By the end of the night we are dancing and laughing, like we had been friends from high school. That is one of the reasons I love traveling; I love the beauty in connecting with someone over a good meal and conversation, someone who couldn’t fathom the life that I have lived.
Flash forward 3 months and I am sitting at my friend’s house in a suburb 30 minutes North of the City. In between my time traveling throughout Europe, and me seeing my friend Maddie, I had taken up a waitressing job in Washington DC at a reputable wine bar. Her dad and I are discussing my experience waitressing, and we discuss the power of gathering with food. We talk about how America today is too divided. We talk about the disagreements on the climate crisis, on who should be president, human rights, and more. We talk about how people won’t even have a simple conversation with someone who disagrees with them. At the end of the conversation, he shares with me his dream of starting a restaurant with a communal table. I remember the rooftop in Seville Spain, sitting with strangers, bonding over food and good company.
I believe that people need to have more conversations. I believe that a meal, in a communal space, fosters that connection. In Spain, over a good meal, with some wine and small talk, I learned no matter where you grow up, being able to empathize and bond with people who are different than you is important. We all have the opportunity to learn from one another. So let’s have a glass of wine, recognize that at the end of the day the person who you disagree with is also a human, and let’s all try to have some empathy and compassion for one another.
Edited by: Abby Rathbun
Just one girl and her experiences 