a favorite color is a perspective

I lost my passport. The flight was the next day. As some as you may know, this would be classified as a mission impossible. First, I went to a government office that didn't do express service. Second, the forms I initially filled out were not the right forms. Third, I needed a guarantor which meant that I had to reconnect with a high school friend. She was the only one available because she took a paid week off. It was one of those kind of days where you wanted give up 10 times and you have already accepted defeat. Even when I met her, she discovered that her passport expired. Luckily, she agreed to help me out because she was in a similar situation before. The misery of renewing a passport right before a flight is universal. 

I invested my whole day to complete the task in 8 hours. Due to all the hidden obstacles, I was in a fight or flight mindset with only 3 hours. The office was closing at 4 pm in another city. I insisted to pick her up and do the paperwork along the way. Interestingly, she introduced the topic about colors. I doubt that I would shamelessly promote about the placeholder NFTs with the missing passport on the back on my mind. However, I wouldn't be surprised if I did. Daily content-driven blog posts can easily seam through one's subconscious. Regardless, the discussion was refreshing because we never talk about colors. In retrospect, we never "talk" at all. 

Although I have been writing about colors and NFTs for the past month, I have never encountered a simple question that evoke a trail of nostalgia. "What was your favorite color?" she asked. 

Puzzled. I was caught off guard by the simplicity of the question. I told her I needed some time to give her a thorough answer. I turned the question around back to her. 

Not surprised. Her favorite color was blue. A primary color that was definitely a hot and trendy color back when adjectives were cool. My recollection of her was someone who enjoys riding a trend. It helps that her nationality is Korean, the trend followers of the world. If BTS gets a certain haircut, all the mid-life crisis men will get that haircut. I know it is wrong to have a preconceived notion but I am surrounded by trend followers in my family. I hope this silly notion applies to every family, not just mine. 

Obviously, I didn't tell her that and if she is reading this, I hope she got a good laugh. Furthermore, she shared her boyfriend's favorite color and was asking whether it is something that matches his personality. I thought that it could be something he just liked. Or it could be because of his nationality, his upbringing, or his exposure to the color. And yes, you guessed it. The color was red for the boyfriend. I think that is a great match, right?  I was no professional but I couldn't help but think why we even had a favorite color in the first place. You can only have an outer perspective from having these external conversations. 

I was thinking about my favorite color back in the day. It was green. Back at art/painting class, I was amazed that two different colors can make another color. Red and yellow makes orange. Red and blue makes purple. But the transformation when mixing yellow and blue was like magic to me. Green was "wingardium leviosa". I would try to mix other colors to see if I could find that same feeling when discovering green. However, no other color made me feel the same way. The second closest thing was adding white to see the different shades of green. My personal favorite shade of green was mint green or the shamrock green you could find at McDonald's. Still to this day, I feel the same way about the color. It is probably not a coincidence that my past time is revolved around plants and the lawn. I get excited when I see the first bulbs springing out of winter. I make the effort to identify plants and in a subconscious way, I enjoy seeing how other colors interact with my favorite color, green. I guess I am a flower boy. 

I wonder if other people's favorite color has stemmed into something. If you liked the color blue, would you wear more blue? Would you enjoy looking at a blue ocean more than others. Would you rather drink pepsi than cola? Would you lean to another political party? Like how I can describe a certain shade of green, would a person describe a certain kind of blue better because they have deep affinity towards it? 

At the passport office, I was at the mercy of the government staff there and at the grace of my friend. Since we did not make an appointment, we were not a priority. I was given a tag with the letter "W"  at the second floor, the final stages of the queue.  Since so many other people were passing through us, I joked that the letter W stood for "whatever". I said it out loud to diffuse my tension with the whole waiting process. I bet that the government staff were laughing about it in the back rooms since the waiting room was so quiet. 

By the end of the day, the new passport was in my hand, a new perspective on the color formed and there was a rekindled friendship.

When I stop taking color for granted, it added another layer of beauty to my life. I felt the same way when I stop taking my friends for granted. Although we may be in different stage of our lives, we can always learn new perspectives from each other.

In the perspective of perspectives, more is more.

Did you have a favorite color? Has that color made an impact in your life? It probably has. I guess you need to have another perspective on it. 

If you think story is worth the share, feel free to do so.