Hi

This was a speech I wrote in 25 minutes for a class assignment.

I believe in saying “Hi.”

I did NOT use to believe in greetings. As an introverted kid, I dreamed of being a spy, being able to sneak around unnoticed by anyone. I slipped in and out of groups, staging constant Irish exits. It confused the hell out of my friends. On some days (and I do not look back upon this fondly), when my dad got home late from work, I didn’t even come out of my room to greet him.

If there was anyone that hated this the most, it was my Israeli grandfather. When I was preoccupied, I sometimes pretended not to notice him walking into my family’s house or even my room. But his Middle Eastern stubbornness would always kick in. “HELLO?!” He would bellow. I’d just respond with an awkward “oh, hey” and continue reading my book, or whatever it was.

As I got older, though, a few things started to happen. I noticed that not recognizing other people’s existence actually led them to stop recognizing my existence. I realized that it’s nice when I see someone I know. And I found that yeah, it’s a little annoying when you walk into a room and no one says anything about you.

My view on this has proudly reversed completely. Why worry about your microsystems* when everyone can be a microsystem? It’s no wonder that toddlers get so excited to wave and say “hi” to every person they see. The joy of human interaction is universal.

This past year, I traveled on my own throughout Europe. If there is one thing solo travel forces you to do, it’s meeting and greeting random new people.

At first, I was pretty shy. In my first country, Croatia, I glanced past my odd-seeming hostel roommates with whom I thought interactions would be awkward. On my second day I finally broke the ice by making conversation with someone on my city tour who was also at my hostel. Slowly I learned to make the most of every interaction.

As I hopped on and off trains from country to country, I made friends with people I never thought I would meet—from rock climbing with German college students to waking up to see the sunrise with a couple Dutch photographers. During my last leg of my trip, I was walking to meet a new friend for dinner in Florence. Across the street caught a glimpse of someone who seemed familiar: I shouted “hey!” to get her attention. It was a girl from Poland who happened to be the first person I’d met on that city tour in Croatia.

I'll keep meeting tons of people, and continue to encounter those awkward roadblocks to interaction that everyone runs into. But I know that developing profound connections with others can simply start with “hi.”

*A reference to Bronfenbrenner's theories of child developmental psychology