Interact With The Strangers

       We interact with people on a daily basis. Family, friends, classmates, colleagues, even the cashier at the grocery store around the corner. Whether it is for a long span of time or even the briefest of seconds, these many people occupy a unique moment in our lives. And that can make all the difference.

        Two weeks ago, I traveled by myself to Dublin for five days, seeing many wondrous sights and meeting some great people. I stayed in a hostel not too far out of the city center in a 12-person room. Little did I know when planning the trip, but that weekend was actually a bank holiday weekend, which meant that my hostel was full almost every night. Over the course of my stay, I met various people staying in my room, from teachers to students to families, all enjoying the magnificence of Dublin in various ways.

       On my first night, I met two girls who were studying abroad in Finland for the semester. We talked about the different things we each had planned to see while in Ireland, glorifying over our mutual love for the Cliffs of Moher and learning about the many odd and different museums in Dublin, such as the Leprechaun Museum. It was particularly enjoyable to have them to talk to on my first night; I began to feel welcomed and excited for what Dublin offered.

       Throughout the next few nights, the people in my room cycled in and out, leading me to meet a new group every single night and then to never see them again. On one night, I met a pair of post-graduate English teachers studying in England and we shared our common interests in being English majors. They talked about the haunted bus tour they went on that day and I discussed my day in County Wicklow and Kilkenny. Another night, I met a French family taking a short vacation by passing through various cities in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Finally, on my last night, I welcomed in a group of Brazilian and Mexican friends studying in Paris and told them all about where I had been and where they needed to go in Dublin before they left.

       I remember when I was a little kid and I was learning about fate and destiny and all that. I imagined that each person’s life was a piece of string, or this one straight line. As we met people, our lines crossed and intertwined, creating a beautiful pattern of endlessly intersecting lines for each new person we met. The longer we knew someone, the longer their line stayed alongside ours; yet even for those people with whom we only interacted once, their line still passed along us.

       I may never these people I met in Dublin again, but they were there, their lines had an impact on me. For various reasons, they affected me on my journey, by making me feel welcome, by telling me about some great sights, by sharing common interests. This may all sound like a ramble right now, but I think it is important to remember on any journey that we should try to meet new people, to interact with the strangers out there for even a brief moment. You never know what could happen…