Greta Week 1: Starting Small (literally)
To my dismay, I remembered over halfway through this week that I still needed to find my weekly stranger. It had definitely not been on my mind up until that point, so it is very possible I had some missed opportunities earlier in the week.
That's when my *almost* conversations with strangers began. Friday night we found ourselves at Maverik and we tried to be chatty with the cashier, no luck. He wasn't having it. Saturday while out running errands, Lisa and I were pretty friendly with the Autozone guy, but that didn't amount to anything more than him saying he couldn't help fix the auxiliary jack in my car. Then at Joann's Fabric Store a nice lady gave some unsolicited advice about the rotary cutter and board I was choosing (she said Olfa is the way to go). I definitely could have turned that into a 3-minute conversation, but I totally missed that opportunity because I was sort of in a hurry and ready to be done shopping.
Maybe I could have counted those three failed attempts as one combined 3-minute conversation with a stranger(s), but I really didn't want to fail at my first week of this challenge. So luckily we decided today that Sundays will be the end of our week. I was given an extra day to redeem myself. Lisa and I went on a couple walks this week and every time we were approaching someone she'd say, "you could talk to them." I made her stop that because that just made me more nervous about the idea of striking up a conversation with a random stranger. I'm hoping as this experiment goes on, it'll get easier and I'll be able to do it more organically.
We went to Imperial Park this afternoon (it was 75 degrees! Hello SUMMER!). There was a kid playing on the teeter totter by himself so I went and joined him. He was more than happy to talk to me. Why are kid strangers sooooo much less scary to talk to than adult strangers? He told me about how he loves to play baseball and also soccer. He is 4 years old, and his name is Avery. That made me happy because that's my nephew's name, which he didn't seem to care about. He was too busy trying to guess my age. Guess #1: 6 years old. Guess #2: 63 years old. When I told him I am 25, he said I'm old. He later asked Lisa and I why we were at the park. Ummm because the park is the best place to be on a nice day, duh! Carine also made friends (enemies?) with some of the other kids at the park, they were a hoot and had the best jokes.
Here's to not waiting until next Sunday for my next one.
xoxo,
Gretz
That's when my *almost* conversations with strangers began. Friday night we found ourselves at Maverik and we tried to be chatty with the cashier, no luck. He wasn't having it. Saturday while out running errands, Lisa and I were pretty friendly with the Autozone guy, but that didn't amount to anything more than him saying he couldn't help fix the auxiliary jack in my car. Then at Joann's Fabric Store a nice lady gave some unsolicited advice about the rotary cutter and board I was choosing (she said Olfa is the way to go). I definitely could have turned that into a 3-minute conversation, but I totally missed that opportunity because I was sort of in a hurry and ready to be done shopping.
Maybe I could have counted those three failed attempts as one combined 3-minute conversation with a stranger(s), but I really didn't want to fail at my first week of this challenge. So luckily we decided today that Sundays will be the end of our week. I was given an extra day to redeem myself. Lisa and I went on a couple walks this week and every time we were approaching someone she'd say, "you could talk to them." I made her stop that because that just made me more nervous about the idea of striking up a conversation with a random stranger. I'm hoping as this experiment goes on, it'll get easier and I'll be able to do it more organically.
We went to Imperial Park this afternoon (it was 75 degrees! Hello SUMMER!). There was a kid playing on the teeter totter by himself so I went and joined him. He was more than happy to talk to me. Why are kid strangers sooooo much less scary to talk to than adult strangers? He told me about how he loves to play baseball and also soccer. He is 4 years old, and his name is Avery. That made me happy because that's my nephew's name, which he didn't seem to care about. He was too busy trying to guess my age. Guess #1: 6 years old. Guess #2: 63 years old. When I told him I am 25, he said I'm old. He later asked Lisa and I why we were at the park. Ummm because the park is the best place to be on a nice day, duh! Carine also made friends (enemies?) with some of the other kids at the park, they were a hoot and had the best jokes.
Here's to not waiting until next Sunday for my next one.
xoxo,
Gretz
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