A Listening Stranger

Today, I did something that I normally would not do. I met up with a stranger. I don't mean someone I have been talking online for a few months. I mean someone I barely talked to for a few days online before deciding to meet up.

Honestly, I was hesitant about what I was gonna do. But I was bored and I had an extra time to waste so I ended up meeting up with this stranger. I have no expectations aside from his promise of free coffee and conversation. You might have started thinking that it might be networking or a scheme to prey on some naive woman. Surprisingly, both situations did not happen. What did happen is exactly what was promised.

A Direct Approach

In the time I have spent lurking on social media, I have learned not to trust what people post online. Some people claim to want friend but really mean friends with benefits. And some claim to want a relationship but only really meant a relationship in bed. However, my experience today was a pleasant surprise.

What we agreed upon was a coffee and a conversation. That is exactly what I got out of today's meeting. It was a nice experience to have and kinda makes me glad that I had the chance to experience it.

There was no expectation to keep in touch with each other nor a promise to meet again. Just a conversation with a stranger that we will never meet again.

It was an experience that might have happened to me unintentionally before. Meeting someone that I formed a connection with only to never see that person again but it was the first time that i intentionally met with someone to form a connection with l, knowing that there would not be a second meeting.

He mostly spoke during the meeting but honestly, I did not feel the need to open my mouth to tell this stranger about myself. I was just there for a bit of entertainment and he provided that when he talked about various things.

We did not give any information about each other that could lead us to find one another in real life. Just a name that might have been false or not. But it did not matter for we were just strangers sharing a conversation.

The thing about this experience is that it is different from my expectations since both of us did it out of the blue, out of boredom. A random encounter with a stranger who just so happened to be in the same kind of mood at the same day.

To be honest, by next week, I would probably not even remember his name nor his face nor his stories. But I will be able to remember that once, I faced my fear of meeting with a random stranger and I did enjoy it.

This is also the reason why I am writing it. This article serves as a reminder that once, even though I was struggling with depression, I met up with a stranger and got a memorable day out of it.

Although, I will put a disclaimer here for younger audience that meeting up with online strangers should be done with careful consideration. You should not just trust blindly because you never know if a stranger has bad intentions so always have safety measures in place. And never, ever meet with a stranger in a private space for the first time. Always opt for a more public setting wherein you can safely exit a situation if your gut is telling you that something is wrong.

For me, I got lucky but I know that there are others who did not have the same luck as me. So please be careful out there. Trying out things outside of your comfort zone is good yet safety should always be a priority.