The Stranger I Met Today

Katie Jackson, guest blogger for The Stranger I Met Today, shares her recent experience on the street. 

Two Un/Related Strangers

I tend to avoid people. Especially people I don’t know. Even worse, people who may not understand me and mistake that for my stupidity and lack of social skills. So several months ago I was riding a confidence high after spending a morning successfully navigating the city of Dublin on my own when I approached the first stranger.

He was blond and handsome with a slight accent, a clipboard and a yellow group t-shirt. Clearly he was going to stop me, and normally I would keep walking to hide my inability to make small talk. But today I felt international and open to new experiences. (Also I was early to meet my friend, so had nowhere else to go.) This kid was friendly, asking about my visit and what I did for a living back home. Then he asked if he might tell me a little about the human rights horrors in Somewhere-istan, and I, like a caring Samaritan, said yes. He was a representative of a well-known worldwide non-profit and wanted me to sign up and support the cause, and really, how can you say no to that?

But he didn’t just want my name and email or a couple Euros from my purse. He wanted my credit card information. Cringe. So I did want any Good Samaritan would do: I lied and said I didn’t have a credit card. When pressed I said something about lots of American’s getting in trouble with credit card debt and promised to respond to his e-mail from home.

I escaped that day, but of course I passed another group from the same non-profit the next day and totally and intentionally blew off the girl who approached me. And then, of course, I ran into the same kid from the day before. Awkward, not only because I didn’t want to talk to him again but it also looked like I’d only talk to cute foreign boys and not the American-looking chick. I even felt guilty about having a paper cup of hot chocolate in my hand. Such extravagance.   

Fast forward to summer 2013. I’m walking a downtown beach town with a friend when I see the terrorizing monochromatic logo of a group t-shirt half a block ahead. This one was red and its wearer was already smiling at me. My social anxieties started pinging around in my loner’s brain: please don’t let him talk to me…I don’t have any extra cash on me today…didn’t we talk about this in Bible study last week?...I’m not a mean person, I’m not a mean person, I’m not a mean person…I have to tell my friend about the other situation so she doesn’t think I’m a mean person…I should cross the street…it’s too late to cross the street…oh my God he’s talking to me…

And here is the exchange:

Me: Hi, how are you? (Crinkle-eyed smile, still walking)

Him: I’m great, I’m standing up for gay student rights-

Me: (Interrupting) CONGRATULATIONS. I’m going to keep walking.

And I do. I keep walking while the others stare at me and my embarrassed friend as I drag her down the street. Once you’ve told the gay student supporters that you’re going to keep walking, you have to commit or you’ll look like a fool. True, I already looked like a fool, but I wasn’t going to hang around and dwell in it. Congratulations! Keep moving.

Lesson Learned

All strangers are not the same. The opposite of 45 minutes refusing to give a non-profit your credit card information in a foreign country is not sprinting past a student minority group at the beach and wishing them well. Don’t judge a street presence by their group t-shirt.