“Birth Partner”

“You must be around 25-year-old?” texted Thaint. “No, it is 32.” Thura replied. “Oh, really? Which month?” Thaint texted in a surprise not knowing bigger surprise is coming. “August” Thura replied. “Leo or Virgo” Thaint continued. “Virgo” Thura promptly replied. “89?” Thaint asked as she wanted to confirm the years were counted to the nearest estimate. “Yep” Thura replied.

Thaint was totally amazed by the coincidence and wanted to express her excitement. “Lol” “Why so similar?” “Quite funny” “Sorry I was too curious”; she tried to wrap up her continuous one-sided interrogations as Thura didn’t seem quite excited by her multiple comments. He replied, “It’s okay.”

Thaint started to suspect his emotional limitations and added “Maybe we were borne on the same day though?” Thura gave a surprise emoji. Thaint thought that he would have had noticed the day as well if he actually paid attention to each other’s first names.

In Myanmar, the Burmese alphabet of the first names is generally chosen by the parents according to the day their children were born. The alphabet with the “Tha” sound used in the people’s first names represents that they were borne on Friday.

She tried to change the topic as she didn’t want to make her interest on him too obvious. “Which field of IT are you good at?” “Just a little bit of everything” Thura replied sounding very humble.

Thaint wanted to change the boring communication theme. She interviewed him and found out that he was also a doctor like herself. “Trying to apply graduate study for data science” Thura said. “Why not try studying in the US?” Thaint paved her way to give him a hint of her interest although she kind of knew he was emotionally guarded.

“I just want to escape from the country at least for a bit” Thura wrote; “Just want to go to a closer country. Even that was tough to convince my parents.” “Why? Right! Parents would want you to stay around to take care of them.” Thaint wrote. “No, it’s not that. They are just worried about me as the youngest one,” said Thura.

Thaint tried to pave her way again; “My mom also worries about me from time to time although she lets me settle in the US. I was trained to be independent. My mom is a strong woman.” Thaint had something more to say regarding what Myanmar women usually worry about; “Even though I consider myself as independent, there’s still some kind of control within most Asian familie that we have to accept. I heard someone commented about me at my back in the US.”

Thura started sharing his thoughtful comments. He was quite humble saying that “I read a little bit and I found that there’s something called Asian values. Every culture has their pros and cons. Some people comment on other cultures without really trying to understand it, not appreciating diversity and mutual respect.” Thaint agreed. She never followed meaningless societal norms either. She has learned enough to decide herself which part of her traditional norms she would carry on or not.

“Language is a barrier as well. And I am also a perfectionist. That’s my secret.’ said Thura with a smile emoji. Thaint started to realize his fears and routed herself to guide him and encouraged him. At the same time, she was happy to find a mirror image of herself. She replied, “Me too,” with an uncomfortable laugh emoji to his confession of perfectionist.

Thura started to chat about himself revealing his mild OCD trait. He was trained by his parents to be able to work strictly on time. He recalled his rebellions and being introverted during his medical school. “I don’t like to talk too much as most of the things people say are something I already knew.” Thaint promptly responded, “That’s why I asked you to come to US so that we can become partners in crime.” “Maybe we are too intelligent!” Thaint joked about it. Thura made a few more discussions about the pros and cons of having an introverted personality.

Thaint felt like he has high EQ but Thura refused it revealing his self-blaming on waking up an hour late on the weekends. This is not surprising to Thaint at all. She wanted to know about one condition though. “Do you feel offended by being criticized?” She asked. Thura denied. He stated he would rather welcome it and he would only look for the background reason why someone has criticized him.

There was a pause in texting as both sides tried to think about another topic to discuss. Thaint tried to remember the first day of “Virgo” sign which happens to be August 23rd which later made her realize that there is only one Friday in the month of August 1989 after the 23rd, which is the 25th. As her nature drove her, Thaint confidently made an assumption of Thura’s birthday; “Wasn’t it the 25th of August that you were born?” Thura was shocked and texted; “How did you find out?” Thaint laughed and replied, “I have sixth sense, my Birth Partner!” using the common Burmese term ‘Birth partner’ used to refer people born on the exact same day. “I have the ability to link broken pieces of information,” Thaint continued.

Thura never told his real name to Thaint. She accidentally found out his email in the group emails they both were involved to raise funds for the people in Myanmar who were currently under adversity due to military coup that took place about 10 months ago within the country. Thura was shocked but it might have been a sign that more surprising things were coming up in the near future. Thura recently broke up with his 15-year-old committed relationship. He thought the 15 years was a waste to have committed to one person and restricted himself from exploring life fully. He is now seeing hopes once again in life. Thaint is happy to have met someone who is similar to herself and she surely has the tools to help him rebuild and build better!