In October 2022, I spent an hour train ride in Taiwan sitting next to a Buddhist monk.
When she got up in Taipei to disembark, she looked back at me with a gentle smile and said:
"If Yuanfen wants it, we might meet again."
"You yuan zai jian"
有缘再见
That sentence kept me thinking and only now do I start to grasp the meaning of it.
After my 8-months sabbatical, most people asked me what highlights I experienced in these months.
Most often, the answer circled around the big adventures, such as the road trip in Northern Chile or the honeymoon spent in Papua.
Yet, one major highlight was the luxury of deciding day-by-day what I felt like doing.
And more often than not, I decided to reconnect with people I knew worldwide.
When we met again, we were were like candles that rekindled our conversations right were we left them months or years back.
The watch store crew
I made it back to Lucerne, my home from 2009 to 2013. In these four years working at the watch store Bucherer, I earned money to pay for my rent as a student. And made friends for life. Jacqui, Mischi, Silvia, Lingfang, China, Marinella and many more became a second family and opened their homes and hearts to a back then 18-years old me. I experienced, for the first time in my life, that I define my sense of home based on the people around me.
Diplomacy and more
My time at the Swiss Consulate in Shanghai definitely made me grow tremendously. Looking back at the pictures, when my boss Anna Mattei the Vice-Consul of the Cultural Section, asked me to stay for her maternity leave replacement, I see how the excitement and inner stress shaped my 23-years old self. Never in my life had I so little time to exercise. During my sabbatical, I visited Anna in Berne and a dear friend from that time, Alberto Bertoz, from V-Zug at their headquarters in Zug. The conversations immediately took off from were we left them the last time we talked.
When colleagues become friends
Finally, I met many lovely people working at Credit Suisse and GF. My career starter friends Adi, Christele, Anna, Anna, Joelle, JP, where had reunions outside Zurich at some weddings (& pirate parties) in Germany and Croatia. Rea, Demetrius, Greg, Jarin, Henning, Jenny, Sam, just to name a few, where people that originally work brought into my life. I value them now as friends and partners in crime, making this planet a better place.
When looking for some fresh perspectives or a change in your life: How about starting with a conversation you want to rekindle with a person you already know?
You might be surprised by what Yuanfen has ready for you.