Strangers.
People we don't know.
For some of you reading this I am a stranger, for me most of you are too but we have somehow crossed each others paths. Maybe just for this post, maybe I will eventually meet someone reading this, maybe we'll become friends, but it doesn't take away that we at the moment are strangers. People come in & out of our lives as strangers all the time. Sometimes memories we have are of a short interaction with a stranger that was never more than that but somehow you remember. Lately I have been fascinated with the strangers, yes I know strange, but I couldn't wait to share my thoughts for this months Life Thoughts series.
I think most of us at one point or another have heard the phrase "Stranger Danger", which is a very good lesson to teach kids when about safety. But as a human who is terrified of everything & no matter of how in control of my anxiety I am, I am both in love & extremely paranoid of strangers. I don't do well when I am around people I don't know, sometimes I think is my social anxiety but others I am just plain awkward. I overthink everything & I am quick to jump to conclusions when I am not in my comfort zone. When in public I try to create this force field to protect me from the unknown, which includes strangers.
I smile & be my best self I can within my bubble but as soon as a stranger approaches me, all alarms go off & I panic inside. Most of the time is people just being polite or greeting me & I never see them again. In my head I had already written an entire trilogy of what this stranger was going to become in my life, some very cheesy & romantic, others very dark & terrifying you don't what to know. Within that same bubble I want to be able to actually have a conversation with them & not be afraid.
The thing is, I have meet strangers at many different pint in my life & they have stayed, so I don't completely fail as a human. I met one of my best friends in the most random ways, we were both in seventh grade PE class together. We came from different schools, so she was like the majority of the girls in my class, strangers. Our lockers were near & she had a poster of the Jonas Brothers, I made a quick comment that I loved them too & a friendship that still means a lot to me was born. This person I had no idea of her existence up to that point with a poster of the Jonas Brothers became by best friend, it's mind blowing how it happens.
It is also mind blowing how people that were once in your life are now strangers to you. Like the kind you shared kindergarten class with I have no idea what happen to half of them. The kinds I played soccer with in school more than half I have no idea where they're at, complete strangers. The boy, that became by best friend & first love, I have no idea about anything of him or care for that matter but even if I might have memories with & of this person, in the present tense he is a stranger.
For my even more mind blowing thoughts about strangers is that we are all strangers. Think about it, when you are out & about the people you walk by you are a stranger to them. We are the strangers others have met & became important in their lives. We are the ones who have become strangers to those whose lives we've left. We are all strangers online. Pardon the pun but i'ts strange...& I love it.
Thinking about it this way has made me realize so much & cringe at the embarrassing memories...but nonetheless it is kind of incredible how this all works & it makes it less scary somehow. I have no idea if all of this makes sense but they are thoughts that have been going around my head & sort of exploded into this post but that is exactly what this series is about. I hope you enjoyed reading it & let me know your thoughts stranger, I would love to know what you think about this. Smile & have a lovely day.
