Words I heard in a coffee shop in Texas (March 7, 2020)

I had a feeling it would be somehow significant to record the words of strangers - Turns out, these were among the last I heard for months.

Some backstory first:

I was in Austin, Texas with my then-casual boyfriend from Beijing. We both fled the country during Chinese New Year to wait out that “corona virus thing.” We had traveled through my hometown in Michigan and roadtripped across the Midwest visiting friends and my family before heading down to Texas to meet up with his family and coll…