3/1/2020
Life is full of miracles and now I truly start to believe. Who would have thought your appearance could be complimented in the most unexpected way? Some ladies put on haute coutures and delicate makeup to catch the eye of their love interest, not knowing that their natural beauty and authenticity could draw people in the same way without deliberate efforts. The essence of attraction is not about the veneer on the outside, but what comes across outwardly from the inside.
When I had my longest layover in New York City, I met a guy at a gift shop on the fifth avenue and he was drawn to my “beautiful eyes that he couldn’t stop looking at”. The experience feels somewhat surreal not just because my eyes never attracted anyone before, but the occurrence of that incident under my specific circumstances. Before I reflect on my befuddlement to the origin of this compliment, let me share the whole story just for some fun and entertainment.
To kill my time in New York without dragging my luggage and a heavy backpack during my 8-hour layover, I decided to store my luggage at a random gift shop for $5 rather than paying $135 for a hotel room that I’d stay for only 2 hours. This sounds like a smart plan but a little risky as well because the store I chose did not offer legit services of luggage storage (there was no sign labelling that service outside the store). However, the owner kindly agreed to look after my stuff and gave me a paper slip to their address so I can find my way back to the right gift shop.
After dropping off my luggage, I walked to Korean town that was a few blocks away, treated myself with a warm shower, sauna, and a nice one-hour nap at a damp, dark, but decently equipped spa place. As I laid down in a cozy light sauna room, angst crossed my mind with huge fear that I might lose my luggage. I heard my nutty self nattering: “Why did you trust a random gift shop and its seemingly kind owner?”, “What if they took your luggage and didn’t give it back?”, “This is New York City with so many people, what if they were charlatans?” My brain kept chattering until my heart balked at the nonsense in a stern voice: “Calm down Fan. You’ve only slept for four hours on the plane and you deserve a good nap at this time. Just sleep and leave your luggage alone! They are not that valuable anyway. You don’t have a million cash in there. The stuff you bought are mostly gifts for others so why fret at losing them anyway?” The remark was so powerfully enlightening. I was put to sleep immediately like a baby in a mother’s bosom.
After the spa, I walked back to the gift shop feeling mentally refreshed but physically exhausted from the long trip. Luckily, my luggage was safe and intact. I felt pulled to buy something from the store as my gratitude for such a kind favor from the owner, who did it out of pure kindness to help a hopeless girl with a long layover in the city. I picked up a notebook from the shelf asking if it was a sketchbook with blank papers. A tall brown skin man walked up to me opening the wrap to check the inside. I showed him my sketchbook and told him this was what I needed. Unfortunately they don’t have sketchbooks like mine in the store but he got interested in my sketches and asked where the inspirations were from. As we chatted, he looked at me in the eyes saying “Gosh you’ve got beautiful eyes. I can’t stop looking at them. And I like your hair too.” To be honest, I’ve never thought about being complimented under such circumstances with a large camouflage winter jacket loosely hanging on my body, an overloaded backpack on my humped back, and a tired-looking face without any makeup. The Korean sauna must have done magic to my appearance! I gladly took the compliments and thanked him, then got to know that he was a world traveller who has been to twenty countries as a photographer and journalist, and that the gift shop was his family’s business.
Walking out of the gift shop, I could not help but wonder about the essence of his compliment and where it was coming from. A simple assumption could be the fact that I got my eyelash extensions from Bali, which possibly made my eyes prettier. But chances are in the past, I’ve done eyelash extensions several times and no one said my eyes were enchantingly beautiful. There must be more to the beauty of my eyes in addition to the extended lashes.
When I reflected back on the timing of his commendation, it actually happened during my impassioned talk about sketch inspirations. Maybe it was that inspiration, which casted a shaft of sunlight to my eyes; maybe it was passion, as I discussed the topic of creativity and its origins; maybe it was authenticity, that I stayed true to myself in my artwork and shared it to the world. Either way, I was being myself with my beloved sketchbook fervently sharing my creative work. That moment is mesmerizing beauty from the inside worthy of a genuine compliment.
More about my sketches and creative work…
Most recent artwork will be posted on Instagram. Everything else are available on my website.
