New friends are fun!
When is the last time you ran into someone, and knew almost immediately, that you would get along famously?
It happened to me last night. A woman across the table from me at the dinner before a volunteer gig said, “are you Kristin Flickinger from Sun Valley, Idaho?” I am, in fact. Turns out she grew up in the same small town in Idaho that I did (it’s Ketchum, actually), and although we had friends in common, we never knew each other. She asked me this while playing with my cell phone, which I’d left at an empty place setting, and abandoned once I saw that there was space next to my co-workers. I wedged myself between two people I knew, because I wasn’t feeling particularly social. And, now here was some random woman with my cell phone in her hand asking about where I’d grown up.
Oddly enough, she knew who I was, not because she recognized me from Idaho, but because she’d been working a volunteer fair a couple of days earlier with someone who did know me, but wasn’t sure it was me when I walked by (probably because I was totally scowling that whole day). Too funny that, two days later, we were volunteering at the same event – and sitting at the same table.
I reclaimed my phone, and we started chatting – and laughing. After a few hours of volunteering and making each other laugh, she decided to sign up to volunteer again the next morning – today – so we could hang out a bit more. We swapped-out our volunteer partners, and ended up monitoring a hole-in-one prize (it was a golf tournament). We spent five straight hours laughing, talking about growing up in the Wood River valley, and giving each other a raft of crap.
I think it’s pretty awesome to be able to meet someone Monday night, and by Tuesday afternoon have inside jokes that made us both laugh uncontrollably. It was a nice reminder that I don’t know how I’ll get along with a person when I meet them. (I know. I sound like Forrest Gump. It’s still true.) Everyone has the potential to be a fast-friend -or even someone I grew up next to and never knew! The only way to find out is to take the opportunity. Next time I’ll try to sit next to the person I don’t know – even when I’m feeling antisocial.
September 15, 2009 5 Comments