Talk to strangers

I believe I am a friendly person and do not have any reservations in talking to strangers, since it is only natural. All our lives we talk to strangers. When we open our eyes in this world we see few strangers looking after us. Most often we find ourselves in the arms of an stranger who calls herself our mother and we believe her without any question, because at that moment our minds are not corrupt. We are not used to the fact that people are not always nice. Later as we grow up we meet more strangers, some we are told are our relatives and some we choose and be friends with.

As we grow we start hearing about bad things that people do or can do to other people. Why only bad things? Because negative emotions are stronger and survives longer in our memory. If you don't believe me, turn to any news channel and find one good news reported against 5 bad news. Surprisingly most of us agree to the fact that the bad people who mean or can cause us any harm would be less that 5 in every 100 people we come across. Yet in order to avoid these 5 people we end up avoiding all 100 and loose 95 good people whom we could have known.

As we grow, such feelings get stronger and that is the reason we make better friends during school days and fewer friends during college days and even fewer during our professional life and almost none after retirement. The reason is, our trust in others keeps declining as we grow because of the negativity surrounding us.

As far as I am concerned, I take the other approach. I talk to all hundred with the assumption that they are nice people and keep my senses open to spot the 5 and save myself from any harm. If I fail to spot anyone of these 5, which I have at times and get harmed, which again has happened, I had 95 others to support me, which I would not have had in other case. I have learned that this harm is a small price to pay for meeting the nice people I have met and befriended over the years, I for that fact have made more friends during my 4 years of college than I have in my 12 years of school and having so many friends has helped me in many ways.