Grandmas and Comfort Zones

You know, humans seem to always seek familiarity. It’s incredibly easy to make expat friends here in the city because as soon as you hear someone speaking English, you have an opportunity. I’ve made multiple friends by simply hearing English and asking where they were from. One thing leads to another and next thing you know you’re making plans weekend plans with people you met on the metro. Life is random like that. If you feel like an outsider in society, it becomes incredibly easy- even necessary- to find others like yourself. To not have to explain everything. Even outside of nationality, I’ve realized today that this drive towards comfort and familiarity also becomes apparent in the spheres of age and life experience. Although many of the new friends I'm making here are not American, they're still very similar to me. We’re all college students just trying to understand the world and its inhabitants. However, while sitting on a bench and reading for about an hour and a half today, I realized how I’m still limiting myself, even when making friends across the globe in a language that isn’t my own. By subconsciously surrounding myself with like-minded, young, carefree students, I’m still within my comfort zone. On the bench today, an old woman came and sat beside me to ask the time. When I say old, I mean I had noticed her shuffling a few minutes before and thought absent-mindedly about how she was one of the oldest humans I’d ever seen. She couldn’t stand upright, but she was smiling and seemed to be perfectly content with the world. I can only imagine what all she’s seen in her life. Anyways, we ended up sitting on the bench talking for about fifteen minutes. I loved it because we truly had nothing in common besides the fact that we belong to the same planet and human race. I told her I was from the States, and she explained how her entire lineage is Spanish. Her grandparents, their grandparents, probably all the way back to Hasburg rule in 1516. Even though I couldn't understand everything she said (because of language and just pronunciation), we talked for quite awhile about the value of education, the shift in religion in her country, the kinds of stories we like, and other things that grandmas talk about. After she said she had to go, I watched her hobble off at a pace that faintly reminded me off the Animal Planet newborn turtle videos you see when they hobble off to the ocean at .05mph. I truly think she was just walking around to talk to people. When she'd first approached me, I was afraid that she would ask for money. However, I soon realized her desires weren't material. She just wanted human interaction and validation, and I'm so glad I was there to participate in it. All in all, it was oddly satisfying to be reminded of the unfathomably vast spectrum of human experience. While I love meeting new friends, I want to remember to take time to learn from those who truly are nothing like me, even beyond nationality and language. That's how I can truly get beyond my comfort zone.