Re:End of an American tradition: Amtrak kills the traditiona...
by wpietri on Saturday September 21, 2019 @11:52PM
(#21039568)
As somebody who's definitely an introvert, I feel like this is a skill worth picking up. Small talk was agony for years, but eventually with enough practice I got the knack. It has made my world a lot bigger.
Re:End of an American tradition: Amtrak kills the traditiona...
by breakbread on Saturday September 21, 2019 @11:47PM
(#21039551)
My wife is the opposite of me in that she's never met a stranger. I like it, because I get to occasionally have these unique experiences that I'd never find myself in on my own.
So we're waiting to catch a train back to Prague and she ends up chatting with this other American who was there with her daughter. They continued talking the whole way back on the train and we ended up having dinner and romping around together for the rest of the night.
I noticed their Blue Jays jersey and asked if they had a game and we chatted about baseball, the sights in New York they’d visited, and Toronto.
I really enjoy my little conversations with strangers and find it hard to imagine a world where immediately upon stepping outside I’ve got headphones in and am totally insulated from the world around me.
No judgement, I get it, not everyone is gregarious, or in the mood for a chat with a stranger at every given moment.
But it sure is a more pleasant and fulfilling world for me when I’m interacting with other people even if it’s just for a few small moments here and there.
Hell, I spent a train ride talking to a man from Newark about all the clothes he stole from JC Penny’s that day. I don’t condone that behavior and I wouldn’t have struck up the conversation with him. But when he talked to me I listened and learned he got some of those clothes for his nephew. Even people you might judge as bad are trying to bring joy to others a lot of time and it’s certainly interesting to hear people’s perspectives. He showed me his food stamp card and told me how he was excited to help his friends have groceries, of course he was really hoping they’d make him a meal with them too!