Life was great until the day I had been looking forward to for years, which was when my graduation happened. After graduation, I thought the best years were ahead of me. Instead, unlike myself, all my friends moved to different cities and countries. I guess this is the life and so-called “adulting” which I was not a fan of; until I found a couple of individuals who share the same interests as I do. One incident I experienced happened because of my interests.
It is none other than Formula One.
I am embarrassed to admit, but I am one of those fans who started loving the sport by watching the documentary ‘Drive to Survive’. Before this documentary, I thought racing was when cars go round and round for hours on a track. All my beliefs were shattered from episode one.
Nonetheless, I am a fan who will not miss any race each week and I proudly call myself an ‘F1 girly’.
Coming back to reality, I thought I would make friends at work, with who I would feel comfortable socialising outside of work. Boy, was I wrong! I learnt that is it so hard to make friends after school or university.
To my luck, I made a friend in the most unusual way possible. It all happened on laundry day when I decided to wear my Red Bull Racing t-shirt (which I spent way too much on) to the shop when this random stranger stopped me to profess her love for Formula One and her dislike for the team, Red Bull Racing. I did let it slide how my favourite team is not hers and it is the competing team McLaren. With a bit of a disagreement on both ends, we decided to let go of who was the better team.
Just like that, this stranger who I had never seen before was talking to me like we were already friends. I believe, I spent more time talking to her than the shopping I did that day. We bonded instantly like this interaction was meant to happen. Once our long conversation on the topic of the sport ended, we realised we had so much in common, including our love for Billie Eilish and we went to the same university and graduated the same year, what a small world!
Like clockwork since the Spanish Grand Prix, every week a race is scheduled for a meet-up, where she and I meet up in the pub to watch the race. There is no greater experience than watching your favourite sport in the pub. Ten Grand Prix races later, I am equally excited and looking forward to the next race, scheduled for this weekend. We might disagree on which driver and team we would like to see win; we are excited to see each other at the pub to share the moment with the sport we love.
This was the start of a friendship that I did not expect coming from the shops that day, but I will cherish forever. This stranger made my ThirdPlace the Formula One race weekend in the pub.
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