Day 13
“Fear is not a problem; allowing yourself to be consumed by it is.” Patricia Ryan Madson
Today…. Talk to a stranger.
Connections with human beings make us more creative, believe it or not.
During the day find a person you know little about or even a stranger that you can interact with, someone on the bus, grocery, taxi driver, old lady crossing the street.
Have eye contact
Say Hello.
Introduce yourself
Ask them an open ended question.
Some suggestions of open ended questions:
What has been your favorite part of today?
What is something that makes you happy?
What makes you laugh out loud?
What’s the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Extra points: Share your experience.
Happy Sunday!
Comments
CECI: We are in Sardinia on holidays this week. A handful of salespeople walk the beach selling different things such as hats, sarongs, accessories, coconut water, etc.
Today, I met Dani, a man from Pakistan who sells bracelets along the beach.
I bought two bracelets for my twins and asked him about his life, after telling him a bit about myself first. Otherwise, it could feel like an interrogatory rather than a genuine conversation.
He told me that he migrated to Italy from Pakistan with his family. He has 2 daughters and his dream is to get his paperwork sorted to move to the UK where he could give his kids a better education. I wished him good luck and he gave me a bracelet as a present for “being nice”.
Carolina, being Latin-American you know I would have had this exchange anyways, because we easily talk about our family life with strangers, and don’t struggle much starting this kind of random interactions
Like this, I also learned about Gonzalo, a vet from Argentina who is working as a waiter this summer to make some money
before going to Barcelona to be part of a research project on cancer (on animals). His sister leaves there, had a baby, etc etc.
JP: I went to get a pedicure and the person next to me was very smily and I saw she was reading a book in English so although I’m in Madrid I started to talk to her in English. She lives in a residencia next door which is for NYU students, she is doing her PHD and working on her dissertation and they sent her to Madrid for a month. She is a teacher at the new school in NY and a philosophy grad. I asked her what she liked so far about Madrid and it was interesting she said a) everything is soooo cheap, I love that I can fly anywhere with a few hours, the light oh the daylight!
Talking to strangers is something I loved to do in NY and I did it much less here but I have been getting back in the habit, I love the scary first seconds and then the humanity and I was in it !
Thanks for this special treat!