Travel is better with company, and so are lectures—how meeting someone doubled the fun

Attending a popular, lottery-only lecture alone

Today, I went to a lecture by myself.
It was a lecture by a popular speaker who requires a lottery to get in. Since it was open seating, I arrived 15 minutes before the doors opened, but there was already a line of about 30 people.

Many people were attending in groups with friends. Everyone seemed to be having a good time chatting while waiting for the doors to open.

A connection that started with "It's hot, isn't it?"

When I got in line, the woman in front of me smiled and said, "It's hot, isn't it?" She was also attending alone. She was around my age.

At this age, for some reason, a conversation with a stranger can start smoothly with just "It's hot, isn't it?" I don't think that would have happened in my 20s.

Before I knew it, we were excited talking about the speaker's personality, and by the time the doors opened, it had developed into, "Let's sit together."

Small talk blossomed in the front-row seats

When we entered the venue, miraculously, there were two seats left in the front row!
"Wow! The front row is open. Let's sit there."
"That sounds great. What a prime spot."

After that, we had about an hour until the lecture started, and we had a wonderful time chatting.At first, we talked about the speaker, but before I knew it, we were having casual small talk about completely unrelated things.

Before we knew it, it was time for the lecture to start.

Laughing, learning, and realizing the person next to me is now a "friend"

As expected of a popular speaker, many of the attendees were fans, and it was a very educational lecture where everyone was laughing out loud and nodding along.

I also found myself looking at her and laughing, feeling surprised, and even exclaiming, "Oh!" If I had been alone, I might have just sat there silently and said "Oh" in my heart.

They say travel is better with company, and I truly believe that thanks to her, I enjoyed the lecture twice as much. She also told me, "I didn't know much about the speaker, so I'm glad you told me about them beforehand; it made it so much more enjoyable," which made me very happy.

The "see you later" after the lecture and my family's surprise

After the lecture ended, we exchanged LINE contacts and said our goodbyes with a "Thank you so much!" My husband and daughter, who had come to pick me up by car, saw me bowing and waving goodbye to her. My daughter asked, "Mom, who were you waving at?"

When I said, "A friend I met today," my husband was surprised and said, "Wait, today?"

Hehe. Isn't it great? When you reach your late 40s, you can do things like this. Getting older is the best.

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