(Disclaimer: I'm writing this having been awake for more than 38 hours, so this post may be a little fuzzy!)
So having made 35 hours' worth of flights in the past 3 weeks across 3 different states of the U.S., it made me realise just how many people you see and interact with but then never see again.
I mean, on a flight from San Francisco to London Heathrow you'd be stuck in that plane for 10 hours and 10 minutes with nearly 300 complete strangers. For those 10 and a bit hours, you eat the same food, breathe the same air, watch the same films and sleep in the same small seats (which really aren't that comfortable).
It's weird when you think about it like that, right?
Or how about travelling on the Tube, you get on it at rush hour and there are so many people (most of them in suits and rolex watches) who get on and get off and walk down the platform. When you're all crammed in the carriage it's easy to start wondering what people's stories are- where they come from, where they're going, what they're doing, who they know, what they're like, whether they make that same journey every single day..
And the chances are, you've just encountered bajillions of people who you are never going to see again. And the next day you'll walk past/bump into/ride the same bus as another set of bajillions of people who you'll never encounter again.
It's kind of like a bunch of keys- you know what they are, but you don't know their exact purpose, how they're different to the other keys.
All of these people we see but never know are most likely, in some shape or form, connected to us. They might know someone we know, or they could be a distant relative, or they could have the same job as us.
But what does it matter? Because we'll never know. They're still strangers, just passing by.
Get out there, people.
