Summer Reading Contest Winner Week 2: On ‘Why Strangers Are Good for Us’

Cortez Deacetis

Sophene Avedissian, from Los Angeles, selected an post from the Viewpoint segment headlined “Why Strangers Are Fantastic for Us” and wrote:

I distinctly recall looking at my mom in awe as she casually chatted with the grocery shop cashier. When most would reply with a couple of dismissive terms, she seamlessly instigated an whole conversation from the cashier’s easy concern of “How’s your working day?” As we made our way out of the retailer, I turned back and noticed the corners of the cashier’s lips rise into a grin. I wondered, How can my mother so very easily influence someone’s working day from a person smaller, nevertheless significant conversation?

As my mother seeks out these moments to hook up, I steer clear of them. In elementary university, I hid behind my mother at gatherings as she spoke to other individuals. In center school, I frequently replied “no” to invitations to stay away from the awkwardness of assembly new folks. Now, in higher college, I hope that by sporting my pair of rose-gold headphones, other folks really feel discouraged to chat to me.

In “Why Strangers Are Good for Us,” David Sax identifies that participating with strangers “connect[s] us to the community, train[es] us empathy, establish[s] civility and [is] whole of surprise and potentially question.” Sax clarifies when we disregard strangers, we weaken what is at the “core of our social agreement.” The technological evolution blended with the pandemic has pressured “our planet [to grow even more] inward and suspicions.”

I consider a deep breath, slip off my headphones, and get started speaking to the human being future to me as we both wait for our takeout buy.

It’s a commence.

_________

In alphabetical purchase by the writer’s initially name.

Eriene (Zhiyan) on “Yaren and the Sun”

Nishna Makala on “‘Scared and Tired’: Countless numbers Throughout the U.S. Rally Towards Gun Violence”

Shaun Wong on “Zelensky Solutions Hamlet”

Xuanjian on “How Nike Received the Cultural Marathon”

Yanshou (Prince) on “Stephen Curry Is Additional Human, and Brilliant, Than Ever”

________

Ava Dong on “How Quite a few Languages Could a Child Speak?”

Darya on “To Get pleasure from Lifestyle Much more, Embrace Anticipation”

Elaine on “The Potential Is not Female Anymore”

Grace on “Odesa Opera Dwelling Reopens, Defying Putin’s Barbarism”

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