Each year we ask our classmates a straightforward, simple question taken from the lines of a poem by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Mary Oliver. We share with you intimate and candid responses to this question, "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" Concept and photography: Tony Deifell, MBA 2002.
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
“Excuse me. Are you breaking your fast?”
As a freshman in college, I spent a summer learning Mandarin in Beijing. The challenging language program overlapped with Ramadan – my first time marking the holy month away from home in Pakistan. I had grown up with memories of post-fasting Iftars with loved ones full of laughter and merriment; now, with no other Muslims in my program, and none known to me in a foreign city, I felt homesick and alone.
I sat in a restaurant at my table-for-one, eating my chicken rice and vegetables at sunset. By the third day in a row, the Uyghur owner took notice. He studied me – a lanky, foreign teenager – who responded to his enquiry in broken Mandarin. What he then said will stay with me forever.
“You are welcome to eat here every day for dinner all month. I will not charge you.”
By the end of Ramadan, he even asked me to sit at the family table at the back of the restaurant. I felt so special – I can still picture his toothy grin, taste the cumin-spiced lamb that melted in my mouth, and hear his wife’s fascinated tone asking questions about Pakistan and America.
Acknowledging shared humanity with others: sometimes, that’s all it takes to bring joy back to the table.
