Traditions and Second Chances

Stories

Every day millions of people pass by each other and dont say a single word to each other. Maybe its in a grocery store, maybe its in the mall, maybe a busy city, maybe even at church. If we think about it, I think we can all think of plenty of moments that we walk right past someone and dont even say a simple hello. The reality is that we all like to live in our personal bubble. Some people have a bigger personal bubbles than others but at one point or another we all draw a line and decide that its too much to stretch that comfort zone. Who am I to blame anyone? I prefer my comfort zone too. Id call myself a bit of a social introvert and rarely go out of my way to meet new people. Why should I? Ive got plenty of friends and know tons of people. Or so Ive told myself until last week.

So one of my best friends and former teammates Jevon and I decided about a month ago that we both wanted to take a long weekend and just get away and have some fun. We ended up deciding that it would be fun to take a 3 day cruise to the Bahamas. We would fly to Florida on Thursday where we would meet up with one of my old high school buddies that I havent seen in quite some time and then we would cruise from friday-monday. If that sounds like the vacation youve been looking for to get out of the winter chill......it probably is.

So Jevon is without a doubt an extrovert by nature. Me being a tweener leaning more towards the introvert side decided before the trip ever started that I was going to reinvent my personality for this trip and become an extrovert. I also knew going in that this plan was a guaranteed success because all Id have to do is follow Jevon's lead until it became natural (which didnt take long).

Early in the trip Jevon and I decided that a goal of our trip was to meet some new people that we normally wouldnt ever meet. After all, if we refused to meet new people that would mean we would be stuck only talking to each other. Now dont get me wrong, I love Jevon but to be on a boat with 2,000 other people and only talk to one person seems a bit ridiculous.

So off we set. Between the pool, the hot tub, dinner, the casino, shows, and random other nooks and crannies of the boat we were able to found new friends left and right. We met flight attendants, vacation planners, black jack dealers, professional poker players, sales associates, students, business owners, waiters, social hosts, and much more. So many professions, so many stories, and so many locations.

At times I think we caught people off guard. Why would two 24 year old guys want to sit down and talk with random strangers without some kind of hidden motive? Is it possible for these guys to genuinely want to get to know me and hear my story? Like I probably would be, people tended to initially put up a bit of a shield. However, once we convinced them that we genuinely wanted to know who they were, where they came from, even where they were headed, those walls began to come down and friendships were born- even if only for a weekend.

As the cruise continued we were able to find a couple of groups that we spent a considerable amount of time with while also finding time to meet new people and hear new stories. We even had a chance to spend one night in the fine dining room with a group of seven new friends. By the time the last night of the cruise rolled around it was hard to walk around the boat without seeing one of our new friends within 30 steps. If that seems like an exaggeration you can ask....

Rafael, Job, Ferra, Carolyn, Joanna, Francesca, Gabby, Rob, Patrick, Bob, Lauren, Shelly, Juan, Brandon, Lila, Letell, Nicole, Lilly, Katie, Ty, Marty, Chloe, Dubs, Sadia, Sam, Nicolae, Julia, Henry, Edger, Tom, Anthony, Jennarose, Martin, Fifi, Catalina, Stephanie, Maryjo, Marcia, Ashley, Fred, Marcy, Mindi, Fred, Mary, James, Rodney, Sarai, Josh, Rhonda, Bill, Nicole, Jared, Crystal, James, Nigel, Oliver, Les, Tracie, Lindsay, E, Joel, Anne, Calvin, Rob, Jen, Jen, Chris, Kevin, Greg, Tony, Dede, Bebe, Bus, Keith, Charles, Kevin, Stan, Thomas, Lou, Danny, Tino, Mike, Adrian, Chico, Karen, Alex, Alex, John, Norman, Jenine, Jake, Scott, Paul, Donald, Andrea, Amanda, Tia, Lisa, Lenour, Sandra, Ericka, Casey, Nikki, Candice, Paul, John, Mike, Travis, Jimmy, and Shaquille.

So whats my point? That we had a fun weekend and met a lot of amazing people? Not quite. I think it goes deeper than that. I think its an attitude to take interest in the lives of those around us. Until recently I dont think I did it enough and Im sure there are people out there who dont either. Its not always easy. Whats easy is to live in your own personal bubble with the people that you are comfortable with and refuse to meet or invest in new people. Ill be the first to admit that Im not the best at having this attitude nor am I saying that we should all just go around talking to every person we see. What I am saying though is that if we go around living a life of self absorption we will quickly begin to miss out on the lives of others and things we can learn from those whom God puts in our path. Everyone has a story, its about time to start hearing some of them.