Perfect Strangers

Talking to strangers, from the day you're born and especially in the U.K has been discouraged vehemently. The notion is fixed in your brain from an early age and once you've left secondary school the friends you've made are ingrained in your life like little splinters under the skin. When you leave, your friends may be set for life. However, chances are you'll lose contact with many. They'll be teased out by the paths of life that take you towards university or straight into the real world where new friends have to be made. Ultimately we all start as strangers and strangers will flow in and out of your life. So, why not make the most of it?

The British are known for their stiff upper lip and we are reluctant to introduce ourselves to the lesser known celebrity on the street or the handsome man at the back of the bus. Each time we make a decision to keep to ourselves, it is a lost opportunity. You could get to know someone who has an incredible story to tell or even someone who may one day become your soul mate. Whilst some may not welcome a simple introduction at a bus stop, there is no harm in trying.
Isn't it strange how your best friend was once just another kid in your class at school or how you may have once walked past your future significant other in the street and had absolutely no idea? You may have walked past a future Nobel prize winner or accidentally bumped unknowingly into an up and coming Hollywood movie star. They say that you're no more than five handshakes away from everyone in the world and I want to try and decrease that number. It doesn't need to be a handshake but a simple 'Hello' is a good start.

A week ago I met and conversed with Arthur Darvill at The National Theatre in London. I thought to myself, if I had missed the opportunity for this brief encounter due to shyness, I'd have spent at least the next twenty-four hours mentally pinching myself over my sheer stupidity. And God, I'm so glad I had the courage to walk up to him and chat because I genuinely appreciate his work. Many people suffer anxiety over what celebrities may think of them but as long as you don't attack them with unwelcome, exaggerated affection, they're bound to appreciate acknowledgement.

But celebrities aren't always the most interesting people around. Sometimes the best lack all conviction; the most inspiring are sometimes the quietest people who may have the loudest minds. Even looks don't determine likeability - simply look at the Kardashians. The seemingly average boy who sits opposite you in class may have the ability to make you laugh so much you cry.

Something which has often occurred to me is how "We're only supporting characters in the lives of each other". We simply don't consider that the people you pass on the streets or in the corridors at college, have lives and thoughts as complex and exciting as your own. For me, part of the fun of getting to know someone is working that out. Perhaps that's why talking to strangers appeals to me so much. Of course I use my common sense to work out who might be happy to chat and who might be a dodgy character, but I suppose we shouldn't be as cynical as we are about the general public. After all "The best lack all conviction and the worst are full of passionate intensity".

I don't want to miss out on the best parts of life just because I waited for it to come to me. You've got to reach out and explore.

Maybe I'll take a small risk and compliment a stranger tomorrow.

Antici........pation

So, I have a small notebook where I occasionally vent my feelings and today, reading back, I've recently displayed to myself this intense desire to explore. I've simply realised that all I want is to leave the confined spaces of my home in pursuit of new cultures, different surroundings, unfamiliar territory. I have been overcome by wanderlust and I'm sure it has been provoked by the sheer proximity of a new freedom which is hurtling towards my direction causing my anticipation to rise to an uncomfortable height. In under two months I finish A levels and soon I will never have to go to school or college again. In under sixth months I will, hopefully, be living independently in a new city as a university student and this prospect is taunting every inch of me.

Passing my driving test and getting a car has contributed to my wild longing for I now have this machine that gives me the means to access as far as my fuel will take me. It is an  independence where I can discover the roads beyond, whenever I like without having to rely on my parents. That feeling of liberation when you're blasting music at night, on a motorway and on your own for the first time is utterly incomparable. A sense of adventure in me has sparked to life. Suddenly I'm hit by an urge to spontaneously escape out on midnight drives to wherever the roads take me because I crave the unfamiliar and I'm eager for the thrill of discovery which I haven't experienced in too, too long.

But whilst a short day trip to London may only satisfy my cravings briefly, I am desperate for more. Boredom must be non-existent and any form of procrastination has to be a distant concept that I no longer pursue whether consciously or without meaning to. It has to be somewhere where I don't need the internet to distract me, where my mind cannot wonder aimlessly away from the world within my grasp. I want to be somewhere that begs to be explored or written about and I want new experiences to come out of the wilderness and grab me by the already packed rucksack firmly strapped to my back.

Ultimately, exams are the only force in the way of  this kind of freedom and the closer it gets, the worse it becomes. However, as my craving builds, the anticipation also rises. Often euphoria will occur sporadically. It comes when you least expect; you're at a music festival surrounded by all your friends and all of a sudden you're sprinting to Tesco at 3am and pushing each other in abandoned shopping trolleys and the stars are guiding you and you forget all your responsibilities; you're lying in a park in the sun with your favourite people and you can feel the warmth on your face and the grass on your back and you're listening to beautifully relaxing music. It is the best feeling and you don't expect it and suddenly life is great and it doesn't suck and every little thing brings you joy. But alternatively a life without excitement would not be worth living.

Jake the dog from Adventure Time said "if you get everything you want the minute you want it, what's the point of living?" and that is what it comes down to. The moments you value the most are the moments you have spent craving each second leading up to it and the ones that you have thought about every day.
It is the energy of the crowd at a music concert before the headlining band appear on stage. It is the lurch in your stomach before a long-awaited kiss.It is the unadulterated excitement before you step on the plane to travel to a new destination, the intensity as the plane lifts up into the sky, the butterflies in your gut as your face first touches the warm air of a new country waiting to be explored. And it adds to every experience. When my new life starts, I will value it fully.