Stranger Danger

I probably don’t have a healthy understanding of avoiding strangers. I blame my mom. (Yes, my mom reads this blog. Hi Mom! Love you!) Whenever we went on family vacations, she always chatted it up with some random person whether we were in line at Splash Mountain or riding bikes on Mackinac Island. Occasionally, [read: often] I felt embarrassed by these encounters. Now, however, it seems that the apple has not fallen far from the tree.

A few years ago, I spent a whirlwind of two-and-a-half days in New York City interviewing for legal jobs. (spoiler alert: I didn’t get any of them). I had never really been to NYC before, so in between interviewing, I wanted to see some of the city. While I was in my hotel, I ran into a fellow tourist who was interested in seeing the city. He was in his mid-40s and Vietnamese. We soon were speaking about some things that we wanted to see, and as it turned out he knew of a $1 bus that I could take to get to Grand Central Station.

I decided he had done his homework and we decided to take a walking tour of the city for the afternoon. Yes, I walked to the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, and the Brooklyn Bridge with a complete stranger. Looking back on that experience, it was probably a terrible idea, but it really worked out well for me.  

I have since spoken with numerous strangers and felt enriched by what they have to say and immensely enjoy the experiences. (Future children beware of the extreme embarrassment of this character trait).

But let’s fast forward to today. I have been working in DC for about 8 months. And nearly every day in my commute I cross paths with this one man. He wears a suit and tie. We pass each other on a path where not many people are traveling (through a park in my neighborhood).

In the beginning when we ran into each other frequently we would nod at each other in acknowledgement. Shortly that turned into a nod and smile, and then it graduated to the polite “hello.” Recently, I’ve been going into work at more sporadic times or driving to different schools in the city, so I haven’t seen him much. Absence must make the heart grow fonder because our last greeting, I smiled and he said, “Hey, Good Morning!”

I find this particularly amusing because that is often more than I say to colleagues that I work with who I ride with in the elevator for a few floors. Maybe my mom and I aren’t the only ones who like to speak with strangers.