This past winter I traveled with family to Africa. We did the safari thing, but spent the last couple nights at a hotel in Livingstone, Zambia. During the day everyone but me went out and did touristy things. By the time they got back they were all pretty beat so they went to bed. I lounged around all day so I wasn't too tired. I decided to go to the hotel bar. I sat down and ordered a double Jack and Coke. While I was waiting for my drink, a rather large man sat down beside me. When my drink came he asked me what I had ordered. So I told him it was a double jack and coke and he said he likes my them, and ordered one for himself. This got us to talking. I learned he was from Liberia (which is where my father, who is white, grew up. My grandparents were missionaries, and adopted my father at age 1 just before moving to Liberia for 9 years), but he was in Zambia visiting a friend. We got to talking about life there and life here in the states. I don't know why but I felt comfortable around this guy. I started talking about how I was struggling a but in college and how I felt undeserving of this trip to Africa because grandparents paid for it, as well as they pay for a good bit of my college. He gave me the standard 'everything is going to work out if you try your hardest' advice. Which, coming from anyone else I think I wouldn't have believed quite as much. But for some reason, hearing it from some random person half way around the world, I really did believe it. And he was right. I'm working hard and everything is going very well. It just felt strange. I'd never been out of the country before, minus the drive through Canada while moving from Alaska where I was born. Everything that happened outside of the country seemed to not concern me at all. Like it would never have an effect on me. But then some random man from Liberia, that I met in Zambia, whom I'll never see again, completely reassured me that the most important thing I'm doing in life right now was going to turn out ok. Strange feeling. Thank you, man.