Hello, my name is...

I was hit with kind of an epiphany today, but I guess it was more like a surge of altruism. I was thinking about something that happened the other day and realized that I have a huge change to make in my life. On Wednesday a boy sat down at the table where I was eating breakfast and proceeded to talk to me. It was a great conversation, one of the best I've ever had with a total stranger, and yet it has been bothering me a lot the last couple of days. I am bothered by the fact that I did not get his last name or number because I'm sure he would make a great friend. But what bothers me most of all is walking around campus and feeling so anonymous and alone when there are literally thousands of people all around me. No one had ever sat and talked to me like that, and I have never done it either. And I think what the nicest thing about it was that he wanted to talk to me. It wasn't like being forced into a situation with people like at work or in a classroom (or on a date). He didn't have to talk to me, and yet he did. It wasn't awkward because we weren't trying to fill in silence, we were just getting to know each other. I'm bothered because I want that to happen again, all the time. I want to know everyone. I want to feel like I'm part of a community, not a stranger. I think I'm socially retarded because this comes to me as something completely novel and amazing. I can actually talk to strangers and hold good conversations? What? Really?

So I've made a goal. I'm going to make at least 2 new good friends this summer from talking to random people. Friends I hang out with, not just facebook friends. And as a short term goal I'm going to go up to campus tomorrow to study and I will eat my lunch with a random person and get to know him or her. I'm getting really bored with just hanging out with me all the time.