The meeting got done late and his executive assistant Mathew had forgot to reserve a hotel room. As Mike went from hotel to hotel he realized he wasn’t going to find one at this late hour. He had heard about the hostels in Europe and asked the last hotel concierge where the closes one was, and after all he just needed to lay his bed down before he left for his next meeting in London.

Mike was a workaholic and worked at least twelve hours a day, but usually it turned into fourteen hours. This was his life and tomorrow would just be another long day to make that almighty dollar. When he got to the hostel he cringed, but he reminded himself it was only for tonight, and he would make a reservation as soon as he could get to a phone.

“Hi, I’m wondering if you have a room tonight?”. The person standing behind the desk was pierced in just about every hole, and Mike was pretty sure in other places he didn’t want to know about. “Yeah, we have one, but it is the last one and you’ll have to share it with another person.” the guy said behind the desk said. Mike nodded and took the key and made his way down the hall.

When he opened the door he saw a young man laying on the floor reading a book. He nodded at him and went over to the other bunk. He wiped the crud off the covers and put his jacket around the stained pillow and laid down. He knew he needed a couple of hours of sleep, but then the young man started to speak to him.

“Hello, how are you sir?”, Mike looked up and sighed. Why does he want to talk now he thought to himself, but he didn’t want to be rude, “I’m good, it’s been a long work day and I don’t want to be rude, but I need to get some sleep.”. The young man looked at him and asked, “What do you do?”. Why now he thought, but again didn’t want to be rude, “Because I need money and working hard is the only way to make a good living.”. The young man just looked at him and said, “I don’t work.” This didn’t surprise Mike and he mumbled “figures.”

The young man looked like he didn’t work. His clothes were disheveled, but there was still something about him. He had a smile as he spoke to him that made him look like he was happy. Mike sat up and said, “How can you smile if you don’t have any money?”, “Money is not everything sir. I have traveled all of Europe and seen so many things. I’ve enjoyed the sunrise in southern France and sunsets in Spain.”, Mike felt amazed because he had traveled the world and never really appreciated the little things. Maybe there was something he could learn from him.

The two men and sat and talked through the night about their experiences. Mike was overwhelmed the young man’s life experience. The conversation made him realize that he was right, there was more to life to work. When the sun began to rise the two men walked out to watch it together. As they parted ways they promised to keep in touch and would meet here in Munich at this hostel the same time each year.

As he watched Jonah walk away he remembered he hadn’t reserved a hotel for the next night, but that was alright because he already had a place to stay, and he wasn’t going to work. He decided that day he would start living life and called to tell work he was taking a vacation.