I collect people.

I collect people. Wait a minute…that sounded creepy…but it’s true! I connect with people when I travel and add them to my list of friends on social media. Here is an example: I work for a retail company and I help open new stores. We are usually there for 2.5 weeks and in that time, I end up connecting with the new store team. Inevitably, there are one or two people who I connect with on a deeper level than most of the team. We have something in common, or get into a deep conversation that leads us to want to stay connected beyond the 2.5 weeks. So, that’s what I mean by “I collect people”. It’s one of my favorite things about the work that I get to do!

This is not unique to work situations. I have met people throughout my life at parties or on a vacation or standing in line at the DMV that I count among my friends on social media. Heck…there are people that I have never met in person that I am friends with on social media. In this day and age, that is not unusual. In fact, I’d say it’s becoming more and more normal.

Connection is the reason that I travel. I want to connect with people who are different from me. I want to try to understand someone else’s world view. I believe that by doing this, I (and YOU) will find that we are not so different from each other as we thought we were.

My dad and his wife Joan and I have been on quite a few trips together over the years. We like to go on cruises and we LOVE to play the trivia games while at sea. If you have never done this, here is how it goes: You show up at the appointed time and place for the game. It’s usually in one of the lounges or bars. The idea is to form a team and then you play together. Each team gets a piece of paper and one of those little pencils that you use when you play a game of putt putt. You pick a name for your team and you sit together around the little cocktail table and whisper answers amongst yourselves after each question is posed by the member of the cruise director staff. You write down your answer on the paper using the little pencil. At the end, you pass your paper to another team and the moderator reads the answers while you grade another team’s paper. At the end, one team wins a prize. It’s usually some kind of swag like a pen or a luggage tag. It’s more fun if you have a larger team, so we always look for couples or single players who can join us.

On one of our voyages, we had a couple from Virginia join us for a game. Selena and Karl. They were friendly and we had fun playing the game together. We could have just played the game and then gone our separate ways, but they were fun to talk with when the game ended. We found ourselves sharing what we do and how we ended up on the cruise. After that game, we planned to meet up for cocktails before dinner that night. The next day, we all played trivia together…you see how it just spiraled? If we hadn’t invited them to join us, we would not have had that connection during the rest of the trip. This was about 10 years ago and we are still connected on Facebook. They go on cruises frequently and their kids are growing up super fast.

As we travel around the world, the country, the towns we live in, we have the opportunity to connect. Strike up a conversation while in line for tickets at a museum. Say hello to people as you walk from place to place. Make connections! I believe that we can heal the world by breaking down cultural differences through connection. Let’s try.