Hey, did you meet ‘someone’ during your trip?

Whenever I share with people what I am going to share with you, I am surprised with this same response "Ya, people said the same thing to me too!"

I travel every year in order to get my life refresh, either long trip or short trip, to the US or to mainland China. It actually doesn't matter where I go / whom I go with/ when I go. "Coincidentally" people usually come to me and say something like this, "...there must be a reason for you to go to that place during that particular time, maybe you will meet 'someone' while you are there..." After I return, people usually say or ask, "did you meet 'someone' during your trip?", "oh, you didn't (with a pity face), that's okay, maybe next trip".

I can't tell if they were serious when they asked these questions, but it bugs me because I think these people must have been watching too much TV drama and movies, expecting that I would fall in love with a stranger, just like how Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle. The last scene is very disturbing to me. After several fragmental encounters these two adults finally met each other and within a second they were holding hands and falling in love. I remember watching the ending with a doubtful face and yelled "really!?!?" 

I guess for people asking me these questions see that going on a trip is an opportunity for a LDS woman like me, who is in her late twenties, still single, to find hope for life, to find hope for an eternal companion. (Ha..Ha..). They probably think that if I couldn't find one in Hong Kong, maybe I could find one elsewhere. As many of them said that the "market" in Hong Kong is so small and barren, there are probably more men out there (the demand and supply issue). I even heard from people sharing those urban myths. So-and-so went to that place. He/she is now so madly in love and is going to get married. So-and-so felt prompted to go to that place and he/she met his/her husband there. I also heard this "you went to BYU-Hawaii and you are not married when you returned? What a pity that you couldn't find 'the one' because everyone goes there with a purpose, to find his/her husband/wife".

It does not only happen within Mormon community, probably it is universal. I am not denying the possibilities of this kind of long-distance romance; however, I don’t see the necessity of asking these types of questions and showing these kinds of concerns to others. I would appreciate more if people ask me “so, how’s your trip? How did you feel? Did you eat any good and yummy food?” rather than asking me “hey, did you meet someone?” on my next trip.

G.K.