My first guest of the season is my friend Jessica Hodge, an Australian sommelier living in Paris. This episode turned out to be quite an interesting one because I initially expected Jess to share similar feelings and ideas about creating and embracing a life of living alone, even if it’s temporary.

Well, listener, I was wrong.

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation, and perhaps most importantly, I walked away with a valuable reminder about assumptions and expectations. It's crucial not to assume that the people close to you share the exact same ideas or feelings about everything. That doesn’t mean your friendship is any less meaningful, it’s quite the opposite actually! It means you have an opportunity to listen more and ask thoughtful questions.

And you know what happens when you do that? You’ll learn something new about that person and probably about yourself, which can, ultimately, help you evolve your own perspective as this conversation did with mine.