I tore my ACL playing a recreational sport and went to GW hospital. When they were done treating me, I took my crutches outside and was standing near Foggy Bottom metro when it started to rain. My husband went to get the car to pull it around. While I was waiting, some stranger came up to me and just said, "are you ok?" I nodded and pointed to my knee, saying that they suspected I tore a ligament. And she said, "No...are you doing ok? Do you want to talk about it?"

And it was such a busy place as people were hurriedly coming and going and it felt good that someone paused to really see me, and ask if I was ok. I'm kinder to strangers since then.

Anonymous wrote:More of an encounter than a conversation.

I was working in a store during HS - from a working class family, not sure about my worth or my ability to get into and attend college, or what the future held. A female customer came in, well-dressed, with a Mercedes’ key fob, very outgoing and chatting about what she was buying for an event. The feeling just struck me that I wanted to be like her - financially well-off, comfortable interacting in a sophisticated world, confident, etc. That brief memory gave me ambition and drove me to where I am today - a well-paid and respected professional living a nice UMC life in DC. Maybe other things would have gotten me here too, but it’s interesting what touches us.

Wow. So similar to me. Small town in south.

Saw this women who was so elegant, and not from our town. I just knew at that moment that their was a life outside of our town that I wanted to explore. I have a wonderful life. I also say I go home and appreciate that small town as well. Win/ win.

Over the last year, I gained about 40-50 pounds. It had to do with my DC going away to college and my DH getting cancer. Anyways, I was using food to self-soothe and I could not break this, every night I would swear to do better the next day but..just could not. My body has no upper limit of weight, so I was watching the scale go up and up. Nothing worked and it got so bad I had very little options in my closet; I wore the same few things (washed of course) over and over.

Someone posted on DCUM that one of the national parks was releasing hotel rooms for NEXT YEAR that night.

I had always wanted to go there, and when the kids were little we had a whole plan to go there, but had to cancel because we had to move to DC for DH's job.

So I stayed up and got the hotel room. It will be DH and my first empty-nester trip; reminds me of hikes we did before the kids.

Suddenly, my willpower came back! I'm super-excited to go, and know I have to drop the weight in order to do the long hikes. But I'm not discouraged because I have enough time to lose weight slowly and not make my daily life too hard. I now have the willpower to intermittent fasting (I just eat dinner) and am not eating bread/pasta, not snacking, and the weight is slowly coming off. Most importantly, even when I'm stuck a bit on a plateau, I can tell I'm not going to lose my resolve.

I'm so grateful to that OP. Thank you, mystery OP!

PP here. Sorry for all the typos in my post

I was a young professional and a new older gentleman in his 60s started working at my job. People were recentful that he got the job because he was so old, and they wanted a young and hip programmer, but couldn't finding with our small budget. It was lunch time and no one socialized with him so I asked him to lunch. When we set down to eat his eyes watered and he thanked me profusely for offering to eat with him. He told me that he had brain cancer and was dying. He had been praying for this job as he had been laid off. He was commuting to MD from CT where his much younger wife lived with their 5 year old son. He was very stressed to be leaving them behind, and worried that after he died his wife would not have enough money to care for herself and the son. It made me realize how kindness really matters. You never know what someone is going through.

I was home with my infant son, lonely and depressed. I ran into another woman with a baby while on a walk and she mentioned she had heard about a local parent/child group that met the next day. She said she couldn't go but that I should. So I said I would. And somehow that promise to a stranger worked. I went. And found a lot of supportive people, made friends and motherhood became so much better. Still thankful 20 years later.

Anonymous wrote:It wasn’t a conversation but an interaction. I was 17, a senior in high school and in Cairo, Egypt for Spring Break with my family. As we were walking out of the hotel one morning, a little girl, maybe 6 years old, wearing an often worn party dress, walked up to my little sister and very gently gestured for the can of coke my sister was drinking. Her eyes lit up as my sister handed it to her.

Cairo was my first trip to a third world country and opened my eyes to the US’s and my extreme privilege. The joy that young girl displayed to receive a half drunk can of coke changed my perspective profoundly. We all have our crosses to bear, but they aren’t really very heavy.

I had a similar life-changing encounter at age 19 with a street child in India. Changed the entire trajectory of my life.

More of an encounter than a conversation.

I was working in a store during HS - from a working class family, not sure about my worth or my ability to get into and attend college, or what the future held. A female customer came in, well-dressed, with a Mercedes’ key fob, very outgoing and chatting about what she was buying for an event. The feeling just struck me that I wanted to be like her - financially well-off, comfortable interacting in a sophisticated world, confident, etc. That brief memory gave me ambition and drove me to where I am today - a well-paid and respected professional living a nice UMC life in DC. Maybe other things would have gotten me here too, but it’s interesting what touches us.

When I was in elementary school, Sandra Day O'Connor was speaking somewhere and my mom took me to see her. Afterward my mom and I went to stand in line to meet her, and she crouched down a bit, shook my hand, and said "how are you doing in school?" I was thrilled that I could tell her I was doing well.

I don't think I would have been terrible at school if this hadn't happened, but I never forgot how good it felt to be able to say I was doing well in school, and that was a big motivator for me.

Anonymous wrote:I was pregnant with twins and so large that people on elevators would move away from me. Random strangers always asked me, without preamble, "how many you got in there?" and when I said 2 they would say things like "better you than me" or "good luck." It was so demoralizing. Then, right before I gave birth and was so, so huge, I was sitting on a bench on a sidewalk in DC waiting for my DH to bring the car as close to me as possible so I wouldn't have to walk too far. A bike messenger stopped in front of me and said "Twins?" and when I nodded yes, he said "You are the luckiest and most blessed person on the planet today" and took off on his bike. I burst into tears and felt like I could take on anything. I wish he knew how much I needed that at that specific moment.

I don’t know why but this made me so happy to read.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was 23 in a mall in S. Florida, and a young boy approached me, dragging an even younger boy with him. He asked me if I could buy them something to eat. I was so shocked that a child asked, that I handled it terribly and said no. That was 22 years ago.

How did it change your life?

Just stop

Anonymous wrote:I talk to strangers every day and have for 25 years because of my work. Nothing they have said has changed my life. In fact, I think they have kept a few secrets fro better life from me not to come across as better or know better.

so next time dont comment

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a encounter with a serial killer, I was so lucky to have gotten away in a fluke of luck. It made me more careful about traveling alone. I think it was divine intervention.

Do you ever wonder why God intervened for you but not the other victims of the serial killer?

Anonymous wrote:OP why start your thread with something vague instead of actually writing out the random conversation you had?

Shut up

I was from a rural slum town and when I got a job at age 18 at the CIA as basically a gopher. A person from the office was leaving for a foreign posting and we were taking him to lunch at a nice French restaurant. Everyone was ordering on French from the menu and I had no idea of any of the food. My boss looked at me and said something like: “everyone loves the Quiche here. I recommend you order it.” I barely croaked out the name, but that man and others in the office shepherded me through applying for college, getting grants,and how to navigate life.

I am now a successful lawyer but I will never forgot that comment that told me I could get something hood, if someone helped me.