It is crazy how busy people can be, and how we pass so many people everyday, without the thought of what the person is going through, what is on their minds, what have they done and what gift they’re bringing to life. People watching is one of the things I like to do-in a non creepily way, I promise- to just sit in a coffee shop and watch the many people that walk in, friends going for a break from school, a mother bringing her daughter and her friends for something sweet to drink, a couple enjoying an afternoon with one another, a tutoring session going on or a date; two people just meeting to get to know one another, with the hope of finding “something” special, something that shines. It is fascinating to me how much we get involved into our own lives, we forget to take a second to make a change, to look around, to get to know someone new, to help someone or learn something from a stranger.

My friends always make fun of how I often start up a conversation with the cashier at a store, a kid in a play ground or another passenger that sits next to me on a bus, train or a plane. To me, that’s something I absolutely love, I see it as a new adventure, a story I bring to the “party”. It’s such a refreshing thing to do, a true feeling of joy is brought to me when I meet someone new. And today was one of those happy days. I was going to Swarthmore to do my research for a paper that should’ve been started two weeks ago, but let’s not go there. On my way there, I was tired, just had lunch and decided that since we are so spoiled with this great technology we have, I could watch my show on my iPad (another luxury, I am thankful for) while on the van. Of course I was praying that my motion sickness doesn’t get the best of me, but who do I kid, it happened. The sickening feeling of drowsiness followed by shortened breath and then it happened -leaving that part out for your sake- it wasn’t fun. Moving on (this is when my friends usually pretend to fall asleep, because my stories are always “so long”) I get to the library, start my daunting research of counting graduates of the college – something to mention at another post, maybe- for three hours. Blurred vision from the intense focusing alarms me to the time that I need to go catch my van…which I for some reason think I missed, although I was 10 minutes early, but my worried thoughts took over…

As I was walking around, another girl approached me saying, oh you’re waiting for the van to bryn mawr? and I nod, and start the conversation. A totally new person, I have never met, she sounded french, but mildly so. I didn’t bother to ask, thinking it will probably come up, and we just kept talking about our majors, and classes, the kind of talk you would have with another fellow student, it turned out she goes to Haverford, and I was right, she is French. Both were tired, our accents were at their extremes, and our brains often went blank on english words, to go back to French then the nodding, it is quite funny now that I look back at it. Our conversations kept on going, enjoyable, from classes, to the Tri-co, to traveling the world, to food, to the inevitable culture of BMC and HC, our conversation was so enjoyable. Then we decided to go to dinner, I asked if she cared to join me and our feet lead us to the joy of Erdman (usually HC people prefer Haffner, but she welcomed the new place), we ran into mutual friends that were all surprised as how we knew each other to then be totally taken aback by the fact that we literally just met.

I chose to talk about this because it really left me whole-heartedly happy. It made my day to have made a new friend, met someone knew who I learned much from, and kept company for a little while. Promising to stay in touch, we parted ways at the blue bus stop, and that was the way the evening ended.

So, don’t understimate the beauty of us, of people. We are all meant to meet and share this beautiful life, to give and take, to learn and grow. So, my word for today, is, go out there and make a new friend, everyday. You never know what will come out of it. Always something good.

Until we meet again,

Cheers,
~Muna