“I hope we see you in Monterosso” said my friend, Jon, as I climbed into Dan’s kayak.
I had met Dan early that day on the path from Manarola to Corniglia in Cinque Terre. He seemed super sweet and I was so surprised to see him again on the beach of Vernazza.
He came up to me and said “Are you from Saint Mary’s in California?” I was wearing a soccer t-shirt from my soccer team at Saint Mary’s in MN. I’m like, Dan, It’s Katie, we met earlier.
All he said to me was
“Boat to Monterosso?” pointing to a tiny blue kayak. “Wanna come?“
I didn’t even hesitate, “YES!”
We had been walking through all 5 towns for the past 2 days, I was exhausted.
Brian, Jennie and Jon all looked at me and said, “What are you thinking? You don’t know anything about him.”
I said, “Well, I feel ok about it. I’ll see you guys in Monterosso.”
Jon responds, “I hope we don’t see your body float up on the shore.”
A little harsh, but I understood his point.
I had no fear. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and went with my gut.
Dan was in fact a sweet guy. We found out we had the same birthday (March 18th). He allowed me to sit on the kayak that floated on top of the water with jellyfish swimming on the surface, and not help him paddle at ALL.
We made it to the shore of Monterosso in 15 minutes. As opposed to 45 minutes of walking it took for my friends to arrive.
What’s great about this story is I met up with Dan again, but not on purpose. A month later, we found each other again in Barcelona in a metro train. My mouth opened so wide and so did his.
We ended up exchanging emails and stayed in contact for a few months after our first encounter. Then that was it.
What was amazing about this experience, is that feeling of listening to my intuition.
It’s so important to keep that connection to your gut/intuition. I value it daily.
Keep checking in with yourself throughout the day. Your intuition is always speaking to you.