kitap alıntısı #70, The Wedding Crasher - Mia Sosa

        “Just some photos of people I met during my travels,” she says in a detached tone.

        I point inside. “May I?”

        She swallows, then shrugs her shoulders. “Be my guest.”

        I’m not sure why I’m drawn to the collage. Maybe it’s because I think it’s going to give me some insight into Solange’s personality beyond the information she sent me. Now that I’m close to it, I can see that Solange is in every one of them. Looking relaxed and content. With people of different ages and racial backgrounds. All smiling proudly. “They’re wearing hotel uniforms.”

        “Yes,” she says, appearing at my side, her arms crossed over her middle. “They’re the folks who clean the rooms. Or the bellhops who bring up people’s bags. When I was a child, my mother would always task me with finding out the name of the person who was responsible for cleaning our hotel room. Before we checked out, she’d leave a tip, and I’d leave a note, usually consisting of a terribly drawn picture and a thank-you scrawled across the page. ‘We can’t forget the people who work in the shadows,’ she would say. She cleaned houses herself when she first came to the U.S., so I think she knew how important it was to be acknowledged, and she certainly knew the value of an extra few dollars in her pocket.”

        “Then you started taking pictures of these people on your own trips?”

        “Yeah. Whenever I visit a new place, I take tons of pictures. Of beaches. Of beautiful sunsets. Or mountain ranges. Or even a fantastic meal. All in an effort to capture my experience. One day, I realized what was missing: the people who make the bed or bring you towels or do a million other tasks we take for granted. So I started capturing them. With their permission, of course.” She shrugs again. “Just something I do.”

        It’s a tic of hers, I now realize. Whatever follows that shrug is important, but she doesn’t want to let you in on that fact. I also realize something else: Solange may be unsure where her future will lead her, but being a good person is her moral compass; that’s a level of success some people never reach. “It’s incredibly considerate, and it speaks volumes about you.”

- Mia Sosa, The Wedding Crasher