One of the inevitable effects of going to bars every evening with Sharmila and my somewhat pesky inquisitiveness to get to know people means we meet a lot of new folks. Especially, the people working behind bars. I probably have over fifty young people who have served us, and I still call them on their birthdays. Some of them are not so young today!

Two summers ago, Jay Jay, Sharmila, and I settled down at the bar seat outside Central City Tavern to watch a game when this young lady came up to take our drinks order. Before she could go back, I had already found out a lot about her and her parents (who live nearby).

The following conversation stood fairly close to the norm:

“So Abby, when you are not working here, what do you do? What passions do you have?”

“I am in college.”

“Oh! Where do you go?”

Now, this is where I was in for a shock! Usually, I get the answer of “University of North Georgia,” “Lanier Tech,” or “Kennesaw”-the usual nearby options. And in some rare cases, Georgia Tech or the University of Georgia.

Instead, she said, “I study in Prague.”

“Prague as in Europe?”

“Yes”

“Wow! You are the first student I know from Prague.”

We talked a lot about Prague and how our elder daughter has been there, but we have not. At the end of the discussion—and before she could forget our orders—we told her, “Well, we will come and visit you there sometime.”

I am not sure she took us seriously.

But here we are, a couple of years later, in Prague, having dinner with her!

I showed her pictures of the staff from the bar back where we had met. In fact, I had run into her best friend, Priscilla, that Saturday at the Farmers’ Market. She is a story for another day.

But for this evening, I was overjoyed to see our young friend from the neck of our woods and how she is building up her career and life!