Strangers

Rather than writing about my daily activities and such lately I’ve been more driven by essay writing. My mind is buzzing with thoughts constantly. I’m ready to write a book. I wish my friends were around to have some great people to listen to me. Normally I don’t have a lot to say. In the last 23 years I probably haven’t said my fair share. My friend Stephanie used to get on my case for never saying anything in class. Well, after this trip I’ll be making up for it. I have a lot to say now, more than ever before.

A topic that I haven’t touched on the site in full is “strangers,” and it’s a topic that I have a lot of input to give. Hopefully sometime after this trip you’ll be reading an essay in the My Turn section of Newsweek about my experience with strangers. So this is just a small drop while I have to get it off my mind so I can move on to other things.

Do you ever feel that society and the media tells us to avoid strangers and not to say hi to them? I believe so and it really aggravates me. When watching the news every night it’s hard not to want to lock your doors at every waking moment. There truly is a lot of fear.

And then there is my experience. Not only am I a stranger to hundreds of people that I’ve stayed with on this trip, but they are all strangers to me as well. But, like I’ve been saying since day one, “Strangers are just friends we haven’t met.” Now I can back that up. These “strangers” have taken me into their homes at the last minute, even during holidays when they want to spend time with families. They have shown tears as I drive away. They have told me that I’ve saved their lives and called me an angel. They have open their wallets and given me $100 bills after knowing them for 30 minutes. They have become best friends and role models. And some have said they were simply honored to shake my hand. That’s my experience with strangers.

After staying in about 80 different locations of hosts I have never met before, I have never felt that my safety was in jeopardy. People have been warm and inviting, even inviting a stranger to their house and kicking it off with a potluck! If only we said “Hello” to more people as we pass by and waved to more as we drive by. If only we pulled up a chair to someone who’s sitting alone. If we could just stop making snap judgments about the funny customer at work or the classmate or coworker you’ve never talked to but is assumed to be weird.

So as for now, that’s just my little droplet.