One of the benefits of arriving to school a week early is having the room and even hallway all to myself; no blasting music, no rampaging students, just peace and quiet. But even I have to admit that after a while it gets lonely, not meeting a soul on the way to and from my empty dorm, so when I noticed a girl and her brother walking in front of me with some luggage and stopping at the room across from mine, I took a breath and decided to say hello. The normally reclusive me would have loved to just go into my room and not say a word, but where's the fun in that? Why has it become so difficult for people to walk up to complete strangers and introduce themselves? We're so afraid of that dreaded "awkward moment" that we hole ourselves up in our technology, where there is a bigger margin for error.
So I went up and said hello. Of course there's always that puzzled expression of "who are you and why are you talking to me" that briefly flashes through people's eyes when randomly introducing yourself, but I powered on, said I lived across the hall and asked if she wanted some help unloading her stuff. Again, it's funny how our society has programmed us to say, "no, I'm fine thanks" unless absolutely necessary, for that was the immediate answer I was expecting, but this girl, we'll call her K, took me by surprise. She gave me a disheveled grin and said, "That would be lovely."
Before I knew it I was discovering how alike K and are, how we both have a low tolerance for the chaotic social scene, how we're very focused on our studies, and even a little OCD. After helping her unload everything in her dorm, she offered me a Godiva truffle, one of my favorites, and I knew I had made a new friend.
This is a simple story, but oftentimes the best friendships originate from simple meetings like this. Maybe K and I will become very close. Maybe not. But either way, I'm glad that I took those extra three steps to walk over and say hello. After all, you never know who you're going to meet.
No comments:
Post a Comment