I believe in talking to strangers.

Now I don’t mean “talking to strangers,”as in outwardly putting myself in a dangerous position. I mean trying to take the time of day to ask somebody how their day was. A cashier, somebody in line, your teacher, or just any average person passing through life. Not the person saying nasty things to anybody who walks past them. But hey! They probably would have a semi-interesting story to tell if it wasn’t a really really bad and unsafe idea to ask them.

But honestly, I really do think that if you give somebody the time of day you might not realize how much they have to say.
I learned this from my parents. My dad especially. I have plenty of stories and memories of my Dad finding the most random and obscure things to bond with a stranger over. One story he told me about stuck pretty close to me for a lot of my life. A 11 (ish) year old me, my sister, and my mom had all gone into a bookstore, and my dad was waiting outside with the dog since dogs weren't allowed in. Apparently a guy had come up to him and asked to pet our dog. So in my dad's usual fashion, the two of them got talking. At first they talked about surface level things, like the weather, what was our dog's name, where we were from, So on and so forth. But as the two of them talked about who they were, the guy started to really talk to my dad about himself. He talked about how big Cities seemed dangerous, but there were certain places in the small town country that were dangerous too. He talked about how he was taking care of his granddaughter after an incident with his own daughter had landed her in jail. He talked about old age, trying to find peace with the government, and attempting to find where he was in all of life. Now, that's a lot of information that was just spilled to my poor dad waiting out in the hot North Carolina sun with the dog for us to leave the store. But my dad listened. He lets this guy talk and finds a common ground for both of them to just for a passing moment, take a glimpse into his life. The guy probably had different political views from us and we would probably not be close friends, but for just a moment we could understand each other. That really stuck with me because it helped to remind me that people are from all different sorts of backgrounds, and we really don’t know who they are. My moms a therapist and even though I don’t know about the kind of things people tell her, she also lets them have a moment to just be themselves.

I strive to be like the both of them. To be able to allow people to feel as though they are heard, they matter, and that we all are just people who are trying to make a difference in our lives. So next time I find myself awkwardly standing next to a stranger (and have judged that it is safe to talk to them, always gotta read the room and remove yourself from dangerous situations), I try asking them about their day. Because you never know how badly somebody might need to be heard by someone who cares.

This I believe.