Ex Wolf of Wall Street

The Beatles in India

The girls always included me in their parties, and it was during one of these gatherings, Ina's birthday, that I met David. David is Parisian. But not at all a typical rude Parisian. He now lives in Barcelona and says he considers it his second home. Afterall, he's been living here for twelve or so years. Before Barcelona, he’d lived in NYC. He worked in stocks (or something close to that profession) at Wall Street but claimed being a wolf in Wall Street was no joke. 9-to-5 hustle was the culture in NYC. He said that to be able to survive in the Big A, you gotta have the mentality of a wolf and work and making dough is always top priority. Eventually he got burnt out in NYC and the hyper-individualistic way of thinking and so decided to go back to Europe, travel to Asia to go soul searchin', and back again to Europe.

David looked classy and dashing the first time I met him. He was impeccably dressed in a well-starched denim blue polo with sleeves rolled up to his elbows, paired with loose brown office trousers. He sat beside me and started spilling his life adventures. He proudly declared himself a "cat daddy" and mentioned that he had recently adopted two kitties from a shelter. I'm not so good at small talks but I'm holdin up easy when it comes to stuff about felines and doggos. I opened up about Sox and Max and how I miss them so and that soon I'd be able to reunite with my ginger and lemon babies. Now that I think about it, I prefer engaging in small talk rather than indulging in meaningless, deep convos most squares engage in. I'm probably too dumb to participate in those areas anyway. Too dumb or too existential to care. I catch my mind drifting farther and farther away when caught up in deep convos…

During the same evening, Ina introduced me to one of her Apple co-workers, a Cuban man whose name escaped me. I remember him for his shiny bald head and his smart, neat appearance. We connected over our shared goal of pursuing a Ph.D. but as soon as he started yakking about how he too wanted to specialize and all, my full focus on him immediately retracted and then turned towards the ginormous classic poster of the Beatles in India with the Maharishi and some other New Agey Western squares on a spiritual quest pretending to be Asians and enlightened and all. The poster is so huge it covered the entire wall behind the bald man. I thought, "Damn. I love 33/45 so much. The interiors are so aesthetically pleasing. Don't even get me started on the cocktails. They serve the cheapest cocktails in Barcelona and Moritz Radler flows on tap. Some random dude once told me Moritz Radler on tap is rare..." Anyway I'm sure the bald man said other interesting stuff. How unfortunate that I was not able to focus on him and learn a thing or two about living an intellectual life. No. Seriously. He seemed like a swell guy. A swell guy, the 18-year old pretentious me would've been interested to talk to. If only my attention span now is as long as my attention span then...

Speaking of the Beatles in India and the Maharishi, David also mentioned that he's into those stuff too—stuff about yoga and bliss and Buddhism. In fact, he also went to India for god knows what purpose during his early adult years. He's one of the few Westerners I met who's into that stuff so it felt really refreshing to finally cross paths with someone like him especially since his life in NYC is so in contrast to his life now. People change. Who'd ever thought an ex wolf in Wall Street would end up settling down in a chill city like Barcelona?

I took a long swig of cava. I looked around 33/45 and observed the dizzying stimuli twirling frantically like a tornado of neon lights. People change, I thought. That's the beauty of it all. The mistake most make is conceptualizing folks, putting them inside boxes as if they are forever and always defined merely by their astrological signs and personality types. Oh god, Charlie was so obsessed with those but I guess it wouldn't hurt to cultivate a deeper self-awareness. I just think it's more meaningful to think of people more as individuals evolving as a whole rather than something fixed and predictable. What constitutes individuals intrigue me so much and the more I get to know them, the more interesting they become.

Some people shy away from intimacy. Perhaps the reason for this is because they feel naked or judged or mostly inadequate. But I bet folks like David have nothing to hide.