Talking to Strangers

When I was younger, my friend Sarah would always chastise me for talking to the homeless people, or people trying to sell you things as we walked around downtown Columbia, MO. I would usually be responding to a greeting they offered first. I always thought, and still do think, what's the harm in saying, "Hi! I'm good, how are you?" Now that I live in a slightly larger city my correspondence with homeless people has slightly altered and is usually a "I'm sorry, I don't have any change." And let's be honest, I don't have "a moment for the environment" or the children or the animals when I'm rushing to get from point A to point B. Still, I try to remain as nice as possible, and try answering with an apologetic smile. However, recently my tendency to have brief conversations with strangers led to developing a relationship with the same street vendor I see every day.

Every morning, as I walk out of the Copley Square T station, I meet the same jolly man handing out the Boston Metro to my fellow commuters. He's always happy, always smiling. Never donning the orange Metro apron that cloak most Metro hander-outers. Instead he prefers his normal clothing accompanied by awesome sunglasses and a very stylish baseball cap. I don't remember how we first started talking. Knowing me, initially I most likely grinned, said a polite "No, thank you" to his kind Metro offering and proceeded on my way. The next day it probably developed into a "No, thank you. But have a great day!" And then the next it most likely was, "No, but thanks anyway. See you tomorrow?"

For the past few weeks our morning encounters have developed into a full on relationship. Upon my exit from the depths of the T station the Metro Man knows I don't want the paper. Instead he puts on a big smile when he sees me. Every morning with that smile, he opens his arms to give me a good morning hug. He always ends our morning embrace with a very much welcome, "Princess, did you change your hair? It looks great!" or "Girl, you're wearing those great glasses today." or "Have a great day, Princess!" You know, though. I just don't even know his name. Nor does he know mine. Regardless, we've managed to create an entire relationship based on the fact that he hands out Metros in the morning, and I happen to get off at this stop to get to work.

I considered this relationship this morning, and came to the conclusion that it's good to be nice to people, to respond to their greetings (within reason of course...). This is a quality I like in myself. And now I have a life long friend in the Metro Man.

...A Year Later

I've been terribly busy. Very busy.

Since I've last treated my five (5) followers with an entry, I have accomplished many things in life. Although my viewing of 17 Again is holding steady in my list of adventures, since then I have also managed to:

1. NOT finish Catcher in the Rye

2. Start and finish two other novels. Catcher in the Rye maybe has 100 pages. Maybe it's not meant to be.

3. See Star Trek (absolutely amazing) and Angels and Demons (even Tom Hanks makes bad decisions sometimes. But hey, he still gets paid. And is awesome.)

4. Write an entire "How To" guide for this job. I only started last week...I don't know what that means, but it means something.

5. Begin the process of sending out an email mail merge to over 4000 people.

6. NOT start packing for myhuge, intense move to a new city in T-minus two weeks.

Exciting stuff.

But...and here's the Big But.

I'm ready. I am ready for a challenge. I'm ready to take on unemployment, apply to grad school, follow my destiny, watch all five seasons of "Lost"...again. It's been a year since I graduated from BU and it's been nice witnessing a new class of former over-achievers grab their diplomas, ready to run. I wish them all the best of luck. That's what I did: grabbed my diploma, held on with a death-like grip, made like a baton-wielding relay runner and took off sprinting. In circles.

I'm not sure what's happened in this past year. However, for all the complaining I did, I find myself looking back with fond memories. Maybe I needed this year to let myself run around and figure out which direction is the best for continued sprinting. I still have my diploma clutched tightly in hand, but I'm ready to explore what comes next.