...be a stranger" is an odd phrase. It's meant to remind someone to stay close, to stay relevant. But it seems to me that being a stranger is next to impossible.
There's something to take from every single person you meet. From your neighbor and best friend at age 7, you learn you hate chicken and dumplings. From the bitchy girl in seventh grade you learn not to waste your time trying to be someone you aren't, because there are plenty of other people waiting for you to be someone you already are. From the boy you missed your chance with, you realize how important it is to be a little vulnerable, and from the boy you didn't miss your chance with, you begin to understand just how many fish there are in the sea- and eventually you figure out which ones are worth the catch. And those are just the people you know now, the ones you've already met. There are six billion people on the earth. There are six billion chances to find happiness, or love, or even just a smile.
In my life, I can't think of a lot of people that haven't made some sort of mark. Sure, there are kids I've passed in the halls and completely ignored, or the kids that I've passed in the halls that completely ignore me. But even they aren't strangers. A stranger to me is unattached, living in a completely separate sphere from your life, and while you're existing somewhere, anywhere, a stranger is existing somewhere else, unrelated and unknowing if your life. Everyone you meet shares your present. You can't fix the past, and you can't see the future, but for the one second where you brush shoulders with the boy in the letter jacket, or make awkward eye contact with the student teacher of your French class, your present is shared with someone else. Every single second. And yeah, they may not be meaningful, you may not be cognizant of any connections, but they're there. It's physics.
So to everyone leaving for school, to everyone I just defriended on Facebook, and to everyone who stumbled upon this blog while looking for something interesting (sorry to disappoint,) don't be a stranger. Because you can't. You've made your mark, intentionally or not, and when I'm old and crumbly and losing my mind, it'll still be there, tucked away in a corner of my brain somewhere. I'm sure of that.
kfine
