Two Weeks to Forever

Chapter 1: New Culture, New Everything

Whenever my friend spoke about his wife, something changed in him.

It was subtle at first. His shoulders relaxed. His usually practical voice softened around the edges. Even if he was only mentioning what she planned to cook that evening or repeating something amusing she had said before work, affection seemed to rise through his entire body.

He never announced that he was deeply in love. He didn’t need to.

You could hear it.

We worked together in Australia, often passing the slower parts of the day with casual conversations. He had come from Nepal years earlier, and although he rarely complained about the difficulties of beginning again in another country, I knew the move couldn’t have been easy.

There were unfamiliar streets to learn, forms to complete, jobs to find, and a new culture to understand. There was also the exhausting responsibility of trying to build a stable life while remaining connected to the home he had left behind.

One day, we were talking about another coworker who had recently immigrated. The conversation drifted toward the reasons people leave their countries. Some move for money. Others seek education, safety, or opportunity. Sometimes the decision is practical. Sometimes it is deeply personal.

I turned to my friend.

“Why did you come here?”

He answered so quickly that it sounded as though he had never needed to think about it.