Describe a random encounter with a stranger that stuck out positively to you.
I have extreme social anxiety and it takes me a long time to feel OK around new people so I tend not to build relationships or have friends.
I am a good distance runner though – it’s one of the few things I am good at – and sometimes do fun runs.
A couple of years ago I took part in a charity 5K fun run on base. It was great for me as I left a lot of actual Soldiers in my dust. Grown men who can fight for their country but can’t keep up with a teenage girl who wasn’t even pushing herself.
Well there was this old guy, at least on his sixties and possibly even in his early seventies and I somehow ended up running alongside him. The brat in me started speeding up to show how good I was but he would lengthen his stride and keep up.
I decided to show him in the final 1/4 mile and started to really go at it. But he took off and I couldn’t keep up. He finished a good 15 seconds ahead of me and I was breathing real heavy and stuff when I crossed the line and he came up to me smiling and offered me a high five. And I smiled back, feeling a genuine moment of connecting to another person and gave him the high five.
I’ve no idea who he was, but for a moment I felt less alone.
Madison's Blog 