“Where do you see yourself in five years?”
Some random guy in a parka, waiting for his take-out at my local Chinese/Mexican restaurant, asked me this soon after I’d arrived and ordered my guacamole nachos to-go. I thought, “Good question for New Year’s Day, random guy. Strange but prescient.”
My mind scurried for an answer and when I looked at him to reply, he wasn’t making eye contact but staring just over my head, towards the restaurant’s menu board and the sun-faded photo of the Roast Pork Egg Foo Young.
“You want a big city, you want a small city, you want international?” he said, at which point I realized he was on a hands-free cell phone.
“So you want to stay near Decatur? Georgia?” he continued. After the person on the other end confirmed, he added, “Are they really tying you there?” A pause. “How much?”
I paid and picked up my order. “Well, I wonder how you’d like New York,” the random guy was saying as I walked out the door.
“I like New York just fine,” I thought, stepping into the cold and wind and realizing I needed to buy some salsa. “I can see myself here in five years. But maybe I’d like to make other changes in my life.”
Snow approaching. Change, too, I hope. Time to resolve!