That STRANGER

I was sixteen when I had to move to a new city for my high school. Consequently, I had to leave behind my home and friends. It was very tough for me because it was lonely. It had always been very difficult for me to make new friends trust new people. I could not make friends because of my shy nature but it wasn’t like i did not try. I had no choice but to move on and carry on with my life.

I tried to forget everything and getting a hang of the new days I had waiting for me but in vain. A year had passed and my mental state had worsened. I could not focus on anything. I could not make new friends because of my shy nature. I was all alone but it hurt me somedays. It was on one such day that i was about to head back home by the bus and it took forever to come. It was raining that day so i could not walk home. I sat there with a book in my hand and had my earplugs in.

I was reading when i abrupty zoned out and started thinking about the life I had a year back. I started to cry at a mere thought of it. I wiped the tears and went back to reading. Minutes later a boy sat beside me. By looking at him I could say that he was very much of the same age as me. I still remember how he looked that day, brown medium-long hair with a soft smile on his face, i guess he enjoyed the rain . He was wearing a grey sweatshirt paired with a black jeans and carried a backpack. His smile dropped when he took a look at my face as if he could read my eyes.

He asked me what was wrong and I was pretty startled by his question.

I wanted someone to understand me without words and i thought it was impossible but there he was asking me about it. I wasn’t in the state of denying anything and I wanted to talk so I couldn’t lie. I told him everything one after the other and he listened to me patienty and kept comforting me with his words. We talked for about twenty minutes till the rain stopped and my mood evidently changed. He told me that changes in life keep happening now and then but that should not affect me so much. He insisted that I should move on from what I had and cherish what I have.

I asked him about his life. He was a cheerful guy. A person who seemed quite ambitious. He sounded like he could rule the world, as if nothing was impossible for him to achieve. He was working on some important project and he had to be somewhere related to it.

He inspired me.

We were so into our conversation that we did not asked each other their names. He left after my bus came as we had different ways to go. It’s been two years now since I last saw him which was that very day at the bus stop. Who was he? Where is he now? What is he doing now? Is he doing good in life? Will we meet again? What would my life be like if I had never met him? Questions like this come to my mind sometimes.

He read my face and eyes and knew exactly what had happened and comforted me just as i needed. He lowkey inspired me while he was talking about his dreams and goals. That little twenty minute conversation with him at the bus stop changed my perception of the world, of my life. I was a shy and lonely teenager who had lost all her confidence after leaving her friends and family so much that at a point i thought I’ll never be able to get my life together but after talking to him, a stranger, I realized my life had just started it wasn’t over yet.

I needed someone to talk to me because i was alone. He did that.I promised the sweet stranger that I'd change and move on happily with my life. Till date I am still thankful for those twenty minutes. Not all people are self absorbed as I had assumed. There are still people who can see what you are going through just by looking at you. He made the conversation so comfortable that I never ones felt like I was talking to a random person. Such people change lives, theirs and the others too.

Paying attention to small details can tell you a lot about yourself and the people around you. It can help you read people and tell their moods or next moves. Knowing the small details of a person’s behavior can help you read them and help them with the right problems. People who spend time paying attention to small details come by us as considerate and empathetic. They know themselves to the core and would love to spend time in knowing the people they care about. They know the importance of paying attention to the small details in day to day behaviour of a person and how it lets you in on the closer circle of that persons’s life. Such people are comfortable and safe to be around and with. They create an aura in which their companions feel at ease and comfortable enough to talk about their emotions.

When you pay close attention to the tiny details of someone’s life, you get to know about how much they’ve been through , what they’ve done to cope up with it, what helped them in different situations, how they’ve dealt with life before you’ve met them and the answers to all these questions are the keys to the locked doors of their hearts. When you pay attention to them so closely, you grow closer to them and that helps you to read them and after a certain time you may even be able to predict their next moves. Being such a person is an aid to the others and you yourself too . having such a person who pays attention to the small details of your life is a blessing as you can confide in them and talk to them in distress.

Knowing the person so closely can help them out in different possible ways. Knowing when they feel sad or happy or when they’re confused about everything gives you a chance to uplift their moods or support them. Listening closely to them when they talk when they stay silent, being able to read their eyes and minds in silence and in the noise going on.

The stranger that i met was one of such people. He read me instantly, just by my eyes and face. He said things that comforted me. Before this nobody had walked upto me and asked me about my problems or myself. The few sentences that he said to me filled me with warmth and suddenly I had hopes that not everything is that bad and I can get back to normalcy. Since that day i’ve been paying attention to little deatils in and around me. I have stared to understand myself and other people around me, liitle by litte, everyday.

In this age, although, people prefer to mind their own businesses and no one really cares about what’s going on with the others being considerate towards your loved ones is something everyone should be doing. Small details give away a lot of hidden bits of a person’s life. Being considerate enough to notice and read them is something a concerned and empathetic person would do.