Why do I have the deepest connections with strangers? Maybe because you are allowed to be 100% vulnerable, nothing really matters when you only meet someone one time.
I wonder if animals lie to eachother? Or when they first meet eachother are they 100% vulnerable? or do they mask their true selves behind fear of being found out?
People say “Stranger danger” but I think thats why the world is why it is today. If we weren’t taught that strangers were danger we’d learn more. We’d be more cultured, more daring and unafraid to travel the world to be vulnerable and to stay true to ourselves. We tell our children this and put fear in their hearts to open up and make connections. Is that not what we are here for?
My mom made it very clear to me to never talk to strangers, that was instilled in me until now, and I am 2o years old. I let go of that tradition, because she sternly appointed me to steer clear of people I don’t know, and I began to place myself in a box.
I guess now that I sit and think I realize that I have been my own stranger. That through other people is when you finally see who you TRULY are.
I am here in Arequipa Peru, sitting on my balcony gazing at the three mountains that feel as if they were made just for my eyes and wondering how life brought me here. How I got the courage to leave my impoverished home and community to travel the world, unafraid to be alone with millions of unfamiliar faces, traditions, and food.
It’s because of the people I met, looked at, felt energy from, shared smiles with and even the conversations that I have had with people that speak a completely different language as me, that I know exactly who I am, and what I want to be in the future.
My mom always asked me “What do you want to be when you grow up?” And I remember denouncing the option of becoming a teacher. “Who in their right mind would want to deal with kids all day?” But here I am in Arequipa, Peru walking through neighborhoods that remind me of mine in Washington, DC, teaching students who come from the same background that I come from. This experience almost feels like it has circulated blood through my body.
Latching on to the TED talk about vulnerebility I once listened to with SHIVA 16 has taken me along way.
I deeply thank every stranger who I have come in contact with, it is because of you, that I know who I am, it is because of you that I have figured out that I now know that I will be a teacher.
Without strangers, who would we be?
So let our Auras clash and our light bodies converse for a while, they need friends too.
