The Ugly Sweater Party
On December 21, 2019, in this alternate timeline, Mom, Dad, and I walked into a friend's house for their yearly ugly sweater party. This house belongs to someone Ryan went to high school with. I was dressed in a Grinch costume that I bought back in 2015. There was not a contest by any means, but based on everyone's reactions, if there had been one, I would have won.
I spent the first 20 minutes of the party mingling with everybody that I had gotten to know as a result of Cousin Simple. At that point, I got around to talking to the little sister of one of my brother’s friends. Her name was Paige. Now, Cousin Simple had been together for almost three years, and I had talked to Paige a handful of times before. However, she was a lot more reserved than I was, and we never had a full-on conversation. But this night she was drinking and as a result was a little more talkative.
“Hi Paige,” I said to her.
“Hi Mitchell,” she replied. “I love your costume.”
“Thanks,” I said excitedly, “There's a great story behind it.”
“What is it?” she asked.
The Grinch has always been my favorite character. My “sisters,” the Andersons, and I had a piano teacher growing up, named Renée. She was from Japan and had two daughters who we would watch while she gave lessons to other people. In the spring of 2016, Renee and her family moved back to Japan, and it was really sad. For her last Christmas recital (Christmas 2015), I asked her if I could play You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch, and that’s why I bought the costume.
In the summer of 2019, I realized that college was not for me, so I dropped out. That same week, Renée and her kids came back for a quick visit. She told me she taught English as a second language and said that if I learned to speak Japanese over the next semester, I could come to Japan for a year and teach.
“So,” I told Paige, “That’s what I’m doing! A week from Monday, I’m getting on a plane, and I’m going to be spending at least a year there!”
“Oh my gosh! That sounds awesome!” She exclaimed.
“Yeah, I’m really excited,” I said, “ and it’s gonna be really nice because I’m working on publishing my first book, and I’m starting a podcast this year, and I feel like being away from my real life will be really helpful for getting that done!”
Paige and I talked for another 15 minutes or so, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel a spark. But number one, she was my brother’s friend’s little sister, and number two, in about a week, I was going to be some 6,000 miles away for (at least) a year. So as I left the party, I knew I wouldn’t think about Paige for a very long time.
On Monday, December 30th, 2019, my parents and my brothers walked me to security at John Glenn International Airport at 7:30 in the morning for my 9:00 flight to Vancouver, with a connection to Tokyo. After we said goodbye, I walked through security, and I felt butterflies rising from my stomach to my chest. I had only counted my adult life as starting a year before this, and now I was starting a whole new chapter, and I was excited to see what the future held.
To Be Continued…
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