Life Hacks From the Road: Fishing and Friends

Lake Martin, Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. September 2014.

By living rootless, I have the privilege of meeting people with life experiences that I might not encounter if I were rooted.

This, in turn, means I get to learn cool stuff that I might not otherwise learn.

Thus a new series: Life Hacks From the Road.

My first hack is about fishing and friends, and it comes from a fellow TLGer, Jennifer.


Jennifer and her husband, Martin, stood outside chatting with me one Sunday morning following a Catholic Mass in Tbilisi. We talked about meeting people in new places. About creating a social network from scratch.

Jennifer explained her easy-going philosophy:

I'm at a pond.
There are a lot of fish in the pond.
I throw a line out to see if a fish bites.
Sometimes a fish bites, I reel it in, and it's good.
Sometimes no fish bite, so I just throw out a line later. Or in a different spot.
Sometimes a fish bites, I reel it in, and it's not to my taste, and I release it back into the water.

Me being an introvert, analytical, sometimes-overthinker - gee - Jennifer's philosophy was so simple: Sometimes you land a fish, sometimes not, sometimes you gotta let it go, no big deal. Tomorrow's another day.

But you've got to throw out a line.