Extroverts and what they’re in to.
I’m not very good at meeting new people. Being an extrovert doesn’t always mean you just walk up to people and start sharing your life, does it? But I’ve been working on this recently. Somewhere along the way I started keeping to myself more than I wanted to meet new people. This could be the “New England” effect happening to me, who knows?
All that being said, I’ve tried to think about some of my friends who are fabulous examples of meeting new people through spontaneity, and I wanted to share some of those examples.
* (Webster, Massachusetts) My friend, Ruben Cimbron passed out gospel tracts in 1998 to girls walking by our house by asking them, “How would you like to spend eternity with me in paradise?”
* (Somewhere on the road to Waterville Valley, NH) Angela Greene started up a conversation with a guy by asking him what the writing on his shirt was all about.
* Joe Shea starts up conversations all the time by finding the common ground between him and another person.
*Carie making a batch of cookies and taking them over to our neighbors for no reason at all than to say hello.
* (another Ruben example) Ruben and I used to start up conversation (and get free food) all the time in fast food restaurants by creating straw figures and giving them to people.
One common thread I find in each of these examples springs from the idea that each time one of these “extroverts” meets someone and connects, they highlight the well-being of the person they are connecting with. In other words, they are not trying to sell something or get them to do something (with the possible exception of the first example, used more for comic purposes than anything else), but they are interested in what the other person they are meeting has to say.
And I want to be more like that.
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