THE NARRATIVE ARC
Finding the Magic in the Everyday
A love story and a life lesson
Sometimes there’s an exact moment when you realize someone will be important in your life.
Juli was from California, and we met at the National University of Singapore. I was a lacklustre business student doing an exchange term for my MBA, and she was a dancer working on her undergraduate degree while her father — who’d grown up in Singapore — taught English as a visiting professor.
The first time Juli and I met we talked for hours, only ending the conversation because it felt weird speaking to a stranger for so long. Still, we could have carried on much longer; later we would talk all night, every night. But our meeting wasn’t the moment I’m talking about.
Not long after we met, we were walking through a park near the university. It was an uninspiring place, with just a few trees scattered in a field of sun-singed grass. As we strolled, we approached a narrow stream with a small footbridge passing over it. The structure was utilitarian at best, and I cocked an unimpressed eyebrow and blurted out something like “Hey, a bridge” because I’m insightful that way.
Juli knew better. She looked at the bridge, then back at me, and smiled.
