Strangers on a Plane

It's funny how you can have in-depth conversations with a person you just met when you know you will probably never see again. Maybe we open up because we know we will not have to face the person later. Well the plane to Tokyo and Bangkok were very different. The people next to me from JFK to Narita slept and listened to music, making sure to stick to their personal space. When I approached my seat on the plane from Narita to Bangkok, a guy around my age smiled and waved. It turned out that he was almost 19 years old like me, just graduated from a school in Idaho with a class of 3 (including himself), and had not visited his home in Bangkok for 2 years. Clearly we talked for a while, but then I feel asleep for most of the trip. We said goodbye casually as we left the plane and as I walked behind him, I realized that we never said our names. I debated asking, but did I want to know his name to validate the conversation we had? It would be weird to contact each other in the future, so the reason must be psychological. Perhaps the beauty of talking to strangers is the anonymity. Regardless, he gave me a good feeling about the people in Thailand.