Have we met?

Every single day we meet a stranger. It can happen casually or formally. But either way, it's a new person that we've never met before. Someone we've maybe noticed blending in the crowd, but never really paid much attention to. All of this mounds up to that very single day when life forces you two to greet. Right there in that very moment is that we open up to strangers as if we knew each other since forever. But...Why?

What we've yet to realize is that the only thing separating us from getting to know that person is fear. We see them walking past us every day. It could even be a friend of a close friend of ours, and yet we're afraid. Can't really tell what it is we fear, because each and everyone one of us has a world inside their head. Different reasons and opinions. But when we overcome that fear, we open up.

"Why do we do that?" I asked myself earlier today, "Why is it I have an easier time telling so much about me to a complete stranger, than to a long time friend?". And for that matter, why are strangers so interesting? What is it about the unknown that makes us so curious? We tend to believe that we're so excited and nervous to meet them because we don't know them. I beg to differ (I always do). I strongly believe it is on the contrary. We are so appealed towards getting to know strangers because THEY don't know US.

We can be whoever we want to be. To them, we are the person we've never had the courage to be before. A stranger doesn't know where you've been or who you know. He or she might know your name, but not your story. They might know what you've done, but not what you've seen, lived or been through. They are a blind jury standing in front of our past. Completely unable to judge us. Besides, if they dared judge us, strangers can't hurt or brake us. We feel absolutely no type of emotional attachment towards them and neither them for us. And if this were the case, they wouldn't try. They want to get to know us first...then they decide whether it's a thumbs up or a thumbs down.

And is meeting a stranger our "ticket out"? Or is it the "ticket in"? I mean, maybe by meeting random people we find out more about ourselves than we thought we did. Would you dare to say that in the process of introducing yourself to another person you haven't hesitated at least ONCE about things you were so clear about before? Maybe you were asked who your best friend is, and even after several years of friendship with the so called person, you still hesitate on your answer. That hesitation demonstrates change. Change is the part of nature we control, and the best thing about it is that it can start whenever we decide.

Example of a place where you don't try 
to be nice to strangers. 
Unless you want to get ear raped.

Maybe talking to strangers, as we've been taught since we were little, isn't so dangerous after all. (Yeah, this is guessing you're not going to try to talk to a man in a dark alley with a knife in his left hand or some stupid thing like that. I'm assuming you're smarter than to pull that one off). Perhaps it is a way to finally fulfill all those new wants and needs we've been building up during the time our old friends bailed on us and fed us to the wolves. (Who fucking needs them anyway?)


When a stranger smiles at you, smile back. A stranger is just a friend you have yet to meet, so take the risk. And maybe after you do, while then getting to know the unknown you can get to re-discover yourself.