I never really traveled far from my home-state alone. This was the first time. My mother was unusually upset, I think my dad was OK(… and later when I returned to see them in-person for the first time, I felt that he missed me when he hugged me. Note for another day.) The first thing that I felt was the cold once I got out of the JKF airport. I didn’t have a sim card in my mobile phone and so didn’t have anyone to call. All I had was an address where a colleague of mine was staying. He was kind in offering that I could stay with him for some time.
So I took this cab and the first question I asked the Driver was if we were driving on the Brooklyn bridge. He was sarcastic, in the hindsight I think we were driving through the Washington bridge. Anyhow, we were going towards New Jersey, to a location in Jersey City.
As we drove to the final destination, we couldn’t find the address. We spent ~15 mins trying to find the place but couldn’t. I felt that the Driver was getting impatient and so I insisted that he could drop me on the street and leave. It was approaching 7:30 PM and the streets were almost empty. The Cab Driver could’ve left me there and left, and I still have no idea how I could’ve found the apartment. But the Cab Driver didn’t leave me. I insisted that he leave me. He insisted back that he would stay, telling me this is not a good neighborhood (I had all my belongings, 300$ in cash…). He stayed and we went round and round in the neighborhood trying to find the address, and finally found it at about 8 PM.
Looking back, I feel that I’m where I am because of these extremely helpful people who helped me along the way. Most of them didn’t know me but still were super-helpful. Throughout my adult life, I was always able to make mistakes because I was extremely lucky in not having my mistakes cost me dearly because of the folks like this Cab Driver, who I’m very thankful to.