Every day in university I just act like I know everyone and people find that fun

A few months back we had a bad wind storm. I was driving home from work in the dark that night on some back country roads. I come around a curve and see some asshole with a flashlight in the middle of the road. Thankfully I wasn’t going too fast and I was able to break to a stop without slamming on my brakes.

Turns out it was a lady who lived in a house on the road. One of the old trees from the forest there had fallen into the road, blocking both lanes. With no streetlights there was a good chance if she hadn’t been there, I would have ran into it.

As I got out of my car, she told me she was watching to make sure no one hit the tree. She had called the towns emergency line but the police were tied up with other issues from the storm.

Some guy came out of his house up the way a few minutes later. He had a chain saw with him. He, myself, and another driver worked to clear any debris in the road. 5 minutes later the road was perfectly clear, and the driver and chainsaw guy walked off without saying any words.

Those people likely saved myself from car damage, as well as a good 20 minutes at least from having to find an alternate route home.

I do call center work. I routinely get complements on how I speak. Some of it is the typical “oh thank god, a white man speaking English” crap but there’s also the “you sound like you should be on radio. You’re so expressive and easy to understand.”

I’m not trusting this input. It’s suspect.

Was on vacation to Italy waiting for the train to go to another city, and we met another couple there from Mexico that made some small talk. They told us that they’re going to get married after this trip, then we then talked about our countries and the economic and political struggles of them both, and they gave us a Mexican peso which we had never seen before. Despite it being a pretty small moment compared to all of the amazing things we saw in Italy, this is still one of the fondest memories of that trip

once i fell into a snow drift and an old guy and his wife helped pull me out lol

So, I’ve been learning swing dancing over the last few months, and as a consequence, I’m meeting a lot of new people. There is a girl I had run into and danced with a couple of times at different events, but don’t know her name. She dances well, but often “takes a beat” for herself, throwing in her own footwork, which is fine, even if it is a bit awkward and causes me as lead to have to adapt. I am just there to have fun, and I want my partners to have fun as well. Anyhow, I ran into her at a dance the other day and got her out on the floor. As we’re dancing, I noticed that she never makes eye contact with me, and it occurred to me that this girl might be on the autism spectrum. Intrigued, I start wondering if I can get her to make eye contact, and notice that she is studiously avoiding looking at me when I am looking at her. Throughout the song, our eyes were in a game of pursuit and evasion. As the song is winding up, I pull her into a cuddle for a side-lean dip finale, and I put my face about 6 inches or so from hers. There was no avoiding my gaze, and we lock eyes with full-frontal contact. There was a microsecond of tension, and then we burst out laughing as the song ended. It made my day and I know it made hers.

So many, but several of my absolute favorites all happened in the same 2-day window years ago. I took a semester off college and traveled around the US. I rode the Empire Builder train from Chicago to Seattle, a 2-day trip.

The first was a deaf man who took that trip multiple times a year. He knew the train didn’t have enough outlets for everyone, so he brought a power strip to share with everyone and he’d monitor devices and return them when they were full battery. He and I ‘talked’ for quite a while by passing notes on his phone back and forth.

The next is the one that came to mind first for this question. I was traveling on a budget, and I have a low appetite any way, so I bought snack bars and things for the train so I could save money over the train’s food. At one point, a woman offered me a granola bar out of the blue and I turned her down but didn’t think much of it.

Half a day later, she and her partner were preparing to get off at the next stop. Her partner walked up to me and said, and I quote, “Now I know it’s none of my damn business, but do you have supple money?” It took me a moment to process what he was asking, and I told him I did. He insisted again. I ultimately didn’t take any from him, but what I realized was that the two of them had been watching this young woman, traveling alone, never getting up to go buy food for almost two days straight. They thought I wasn’t eating and offered me food and money. Total strangers. It makes me tear up thinking about them and their kindness.

The last was a young man, closer to my age who got on the train with a full on double bass. He was heading out west with plans to busk his way down the coast. He and I chatted for the last couple hours of the trip, sharing music from his MP3 player. It was an enjoyable bond that lasted only for the moment, as we didn’t exchange contact info or have any other way to connect again.

I still think about those people, and I’ll always remember that trip as one of my favorites because of those strangers.

I had a guy buy me two drinks at an expensive Vegas bar. He didn’t really even want to talk.

I just had the cast from a broken wrist taken off the day before. Couldn’t use the arm yet, per doc. Got up the next morning, 6” of snow fell overnight. My car was parked on the street, and a plow had already been by and piled it up to near the door handle. Got in on the passenger side, started the car to warm up and grabbed my big scraper to start clearing off the car. Dude finished pushing a car free across the street and walks over, sees my sling and says, “I got you! Go get warm in the car”. Took him close to 15 minutes, completely dug me out and scraped my windows. His name was Brian. He saved me that day.

I’ve always disliked smalltalk and never felt comfortable with it, but nowadays, and I don’t know if it’s age or isolation… nowadays I quite enjoy exchanging a few pleasantries with someone as we meet in a staircase or hallway. Just some words about the weather or encouragement for climbing the stairs or sympathy about heavy looking bags - mostly on the boring side but edging on quippy, followed by polite chuckles… it makes whatever made me go outside a little better.

It’s still slightly uncomfortable before deciding what to comment on today, and getting that neutral-positive response, but I like it nonetheless. Feels like a routine even though I do it with different people each time. Makes me feel more at home out there.

*points at photo
“Is that the new pope?”

“Yeah!”

“Is he doin a good job?”

*4 second pause, looks back at photo
“Uhh, yes. He’s doing a good job. Did you know he’s from America!?”

I thought the serious 4-second evaluation period was funny. Good to know he’s doing a good job. This was at a Catholic thrift store yesterday.

Was queuing at the checkout in the grocery store today and realized I wasn’t going to be done putting my foods onto the conveyor belt by the time the cashier would be done with the previous customer. Then a guy comes in to queue behind me and in the corner of my eye, I could tell that he only had three items or so. So, I turn to him and tell him that he can skip ahead of me.

At that point, I see that it’s a bouquet of flowers and a greeting card that he’s holding. He looked a bit embarassed, but then also somewhat touched, because he wasn’t sure, if I was being nice, because he’s carrying his emotions out in the open.

I wasn’t. 😅 I mainly just did not want to cause unnecessary delay. But was an unexpectedly wholesome encounter anyways.

Chad.

Sometimes people ask me for help with dirdctions and it feels good when i can help them or at least give them a bit of confidence by sticking around trying to help for a few minutes. That’s the first thing that came to mind.