We were sitting at the far end of the pub, tired, exhausted, and relieved. I was slowly wiping the water that had condensed on the glass of my IPA with my fingertips, or was it a Belgian? We had conjoined two adjacent tables. The pub was playing some recent-old pop music, as usual. The lights were dim and yellow, there were television screens tucked in every corner airing sports to give people something to look at between conversations. The pub will be gutted by a kitchen fire in five years time.

The pub was known for its deliberately unhurried service, to put it mildly. The waitress came asking for refills which we all gladly ordered, in addition to fries and mega nachos in keeping with the pub tradition. I still hadn’t gotten used to the excess of piercings and tattoos that I see so many servers adorn; I had just finished my first semester. I still hadn’t gotten used to a lot of things here.

I still hadn’t gotten used to grading Calculus finals, nothing can prepare you for this bone-chilling horror, you have to experience it for yourself. As we sat drinking at the end of the day, with mixed feelings of relief and perplexity, we decided not to talk about the exam anymore. What’s done’s done.

Amidst the teasing and taunting, I started complaining about how boring a place Hopkins is with so few things to do (I love to complain) and then one of the undergrads suggested that I try some Argentine Tango lessons right next to the campus to make life more colorful. Ordinarily, I would have shrugged and moved on to my next beer, but having recently finished grading had put me in a different state of mind. I was reminded of the Red Queen;

… here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place.

And just like that I showed up at the Argentine Tango class, in a bright purple t-shirt and sneakers and took my first dance class with the kind and helpful Roger. In the past five years, dancing has been one of the few things that have helped me get through grad school without going crazy and helped me understand myself better.

All good things in life happen unplanned, you just have to let them.