that’s what my mom said to me last night while we were talking about life, the universe, and everything. i didn’t know what that word meant and i asked her and she looked to my dad and this is how our conversation went:

dad: en?
me: yeah, what does “en” mean?
dad: ahhh, you know, “en” wa…. like, “en!”
me: what?! you can’t use the word to define the word!
dad: jaa, ne…”en” is like…well, you know, en!

at this point, my mom runs upstairs and gets her japanese to english electronic dictionary and types it in. “en” is the quality of being fated or destined. fate or destiny.

so my mom says that when it comes to love, it’s all about the “en”, yo. in japanese, “yo” can be used to emphasize a point. it’s actually the exact same way that i use it in english. i didn’t realize that until yesterday. it made me wonder if i knew that or not.

anyway, my mom was saying that when it comes to love, you’ll know it and it’ll work out if the “en” is there.

she then proceeded to tell me the kind of girl that she thinks i should date. she told me that the girl should have suffered in her life. people who have suffered in their life really appreciate everything about life. they appreciate the little things, don’t take people for granted, and are nice.

she also told me that i shouldn’t date a rich girl. she believes that rich people have had an easy life and expect things to be easy. so when the going gets tough, they won’t be there to support you in your time of need and suffer with you.

she also told me that i don’t need to date a pretty girl. she said even if the face isn’t pretty, it’s ok. pretty people tend to know that they are pretty and use it to their advantage.

so i asked her, “so what you are saying is that i should be dating an ugly, poor girl who has suffered through life?!” lovely! i guess i ought to go strolling telegraph in berkeley and pick up on some bums, eh?