One-fourth of a decade ago, around thirty students from the United States came to my Norwegian University to do a summer course. They were stoked to be in Europe for the first time in their life, like exactly how every Hollywood movie presents how exciting it is for an American to go to Europe.
Although I was “originally” from India, I made sure — as I always do — I was their go-to guy for basically everything during their four-week stay in Europe. If you’re now thinking about drugs, what is wrong with you?
That said, I do have a go-to girl myself for drugs — who is Norwegian. I’m kidding. She’s Dutch.
The American students and I became great friends within a week. I was the only guy in Europe who spoke their language. Not English. I mean Hollywood movie references, especially the bad ones. I made sure I let them know I was more fluent than them, not only with Hollywood references but also in English.
It got to the point where even Patrick— their go-to guy for basically everything back in the United States — made some movie references to all of us but not even the Americans understood him.
When nobody couldn’t even pretend to understand him anymore, Patrick, without losing heart, would look at me and excitedly go, “This guy knows what I’m talking about!” I always did. I basically became the Americans’ go-to guy’s go-to guy.
My go-to girl — not for drugs —but basically for everything else in our University— Maria, a Norwegian and our class representative, said to me, “Srini! I have somewhere to be. Could you take all the Americans to class D204? It will be kinda hard for them to find it without our guidance.”
What just happened? I realized I just became my go-to girl’s go-to guy out of nowhere. Whoa! That is massive. I felt an enormous responsibility on my shoulders and I loved it. If anyone was going to take these clueless Americans safely from the C block to the D block, it was always going to be me. I basically owned Europe. Maria was smart enough to recognize it.
I said to Maria, “Coolio!” She left for wherever she had to be, feeling secure.
