The Experience Matters

What? Starbucks didn’t open till 8:00am. How did I survive the mornings until then. I must say the breakfast sandwiches were much better than the U.S. The drop of dijon mustard was killer! Then there was Dim Sum for breakfast. I did skip the chicken feet (phoenix claws) for that setting. It was an experience that I will remember for a while.

I got to experience a bit of how my daughter was living for the last 5 years in Hong Kong. The lesson that I continue to learn? I must not assume what others experience. I need to live in empathy and listen deeply in all my interactions and relationships. Being able to walk the city, was eye opening, showed my privilege, and drove the point home that I had no clue to what it is like to live her life. I am grateful.

Some experiences that I found were different:

• Density - I have been to big cities before, but never with the sheer volume of 30+ story buildings. Not 1 or 10, but thousands. Once the city woke up, streets were packed.
• Language barrier - Most of my travels have been to English speaking countries. I am just glad they knew Visa. My inadequacy of speech was humbling. If my daughter wouldn’t have been speaking Cantonese, I might have starved
• Transportation is really great! Clean, plentiful, and easy to use
• Shopping malls had amazing bathrooms!
• User experiences were different but really cool to see. The best one was the traffic light moving backwards from red -> yellow -> green so that people would be cautious

We don’t have to go to Hong Kong or some other remote exotic destination to become aware of the need to soak in experiences. Looking forward to the next time I can learn.