talk to strangers, all the time

friendship

I’m never going to get to know new and different people if one of us doesn’t take the initiative, might as well be me. I like getting to know people, no matter who.

my boyfriend always hangs out with same bunch of friends. when he took me to their party, he didn’t really introduce me to others, and he didn’t try to get me involved into their conversations.it was quite awkward for me to break the ice coz other people already know each other for god knows how long, so they were just chatting and left me alone. i attended to 2 or 3 of their parties after that, in none of them that my boyfriend realised he should introduce me formally to others. u can imagine it’s getting harder and harder for me to talk to other people. now i hate to go to their parties. i really don’t know how to start a converstaion with people i have seen so many times but i never talked to.

god, i forgot i put this goal in here. over the last several months, i have definitely done this multiple times a day. have made some beautiful friends this way.

We took a class field trip yesterday, and no one was making conversation on the bus, so one girl pointed out how lame we were all being, and she and I got into a small conversation. We don’t usually talk, so it was another step forward =) I also sat next to a girl I rarely talk to during science class, when I usually sit alone. Well, she sat next to me, and we laughed the whole time.

This doesn’t really count as talking to a stranger…but there’s this guy I’ve seen for over a year now, on my way to school. He’s always walking down the road when we pass him, early in the morning. This year, we passed him again, and I randomly decided I may as well wave. He immediately smiled and waved back! He must recognize us by now, as we recognize him and drive by him in the same places each week. It was a big thing for me and my sister =)

it was mix it up day at the middle school i volunteer at, so every person was given a new seat at a lunch table – the point of which was to meet new people and create a more inclusive environment. i was walking into the cafeteria at the same time this girl was – she seemed like she was struggling socially. she had a pb&j and i had a pb&j, so i said hey let’s sit and eat lunch together. so we chatted and i learned about her family (she has two sisters and a brother, though one of her siblings died). she likes to watch scooby doo, and even knows the name of the episode that was my favorite growing up when i started describing it. she likes to play games on the computer. and a host of other things. she was a really nice girl, and i’ll be sure to say hello when i see her in the hall next.

I’ve started talking to people when I go to the store. I also did something really remarkable and spoke to a small child at the fair the other day. That was a huge step for me. To be fair, she started the conversation…

day I was walking down the street (well, most days I walk down the street I say hello to neighbors and folks I chance upon)- but there was a lady- an elderly neighbor of mine. I know her, and she’s lived two houses down my whole life. She doesn’t remember me (she’s 86 and has difficulty remembering basic things). But I saw her checking my mail and I said hi, and we started chatting. We talked about her rhododendrons, and the ring she got when she was in high school (her sister got the same one- but her sister is no longer living)- and she was out gardening the other day and her ring fell off, and she can’t find it. It’s silver. I helped look for it. We talked about the grass and the trees and the wind and pruning hedges. I wasn’t able to help her find the ring, but that wasn’t the point. She has been very lonely- her husband died a few years back, and she lives alone (save for when her grand daughter comes to spend nights with her)- and she’s just lonely- got no one to talk to. She misses human companionship, and you could tell that people had been brushing her aside for a while- because as she put it, she’s a little loony (her mental faculties are going). She said more than once that she appreciated that I stopped and talked to her for a bit.

I know she won’t remember me next time I walk by
but I’m glad I could brighten her afternoon just a little.

Met a bunch of other wonderful strangers. Most of them couchsurfers, or through couchsurfers.

I’m trying to do this more with every type of person. My job means I do this all the time at work, but outside of work, I normally just talk to people who look nice! I think sometimes the people who look less happy are less happy because no-one’s talking to them.

this seems to happen everywhere without my trying…

whether at the park, on the bus, checking out a book at the library, buying things at the organic health food store, volunteering at a church, walking down the road- i seem to run into people and start chatting. sometimes it is just a hello, but other times a small conversation, and sometimes a friendship even evolves….it’s pretty darn neat.