Talking to Strangers

Exactly what your parents told you not to do as a child. 

When I was a kid, and actually, until halfway through high school, I was one of the shyest people I knew. Especially when it came to talking to girls. I would freeze up, mind would go blank, amid awkward, meaningless sounds would escape my lips. Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but that's exactly how it felt from my point of view.

 How things have changed.

 Thanks to some great friends and good insight I now have the opposite point of view. I love talking to new people now, and have even been reprimanded for making conversation on the subway. Anyway, I didn't consciously think of this fact until this weekend, when I surprised my siblings by coming home to Kansas for Chris' graduation (way to go man!).

On the flight from Chicago to Manhattan I sat next to a very cute girl about my age who was also going home to visit her family. At first, we sat there in silence, flipping through the Skymall or Waiting for the plane to take off. At last I could take it no longer. "So what brings you to manhattan?"

A full flight and an hour and a half of chit chat later, it turns out that the world actually IS a tiny place after all. We had several mutual friends from the high school days and knew several of the same families around town. It was very enjoyable, but got me thinking afterwards; how many times have I passed up the opportunity to talk to someone where a similar experience could have taken place? As I well know, great things can come from a simple "hello" or "good morning", but these are often the hardest part of a conversation. And I don't know why. I believe it's a subconscious fear of rejection, that whomever you try to talk to will react adversely and make you feel like an idiot. This is what I'm trying to get over, because I think that fear is greatly overstated in our/my own mind(s).

Thus, on the way back to NYC (this time a 3.5 hour flight), I sat next to an Australian woman who had travelled all over the world teaching English and meeting people (much like my good friend Jason Connolly) and generally having a ball. And as a result of this flight, I now know the rules of Cricket, spoke at great length of the psychology and neuroscience behind learning languages, learned what it was like to grow up in Saudi Arabia and Kenya, and in return taught and quizzed US geography. It then turned out we were going to the same part of the city upon landing, so I invited her to share the car that I had booked back and ended up splitting the fare and thoroughly enjoying the journey  back.

I suppose the lesson of all this is A) talking to people is awesome B) it's something that does not come naturally (at least not for me) C) airplanes are a great place to practice!

 Also, this was originally split into paragraphs. If it doesn't appear to be so now, I blame apple. That is all for now, goodnight! This went on far longer than I had anticipated. If you finished this, you finished this. Until next time!

Ian