Remember That Everyone You Meet Is A Potential Friend (Cue The Cheese)

Hang on, let me roll out the big wheel of cheese I’ve got in the cupboard of my little Dutch apartment because I know the heading is Cheesius Maximus, but it’s staying!

Recently Trudy and I had quite a negative experience in a cafe here in Rotterdam, but it really made me think:

‘What if?’

We were having a coffee near central station at Lebkov (it’s the best coffee we’ve found in Rotterdam!), and as we sat down we heard the girl talking behind us was an Australian expat.

Now if you’re living in London that’s certainly not strange and in fact it would likely not even warrant the battering of an eyelid. But here in Rotterdam there aren’t to many of us, so we think it’s pretty cool when we run into another Aussie!

We ended up approaching her and introducing ourselves as Aussie expats too.

Well she ended up being dismissive, rude and a bit aggressive.

Often these experiences completely put you off introducing yourself to strangers in the future. No-one likes to feel that they’re ‘being weird’, and if you rarely do this sort of thing it can shatter your ‘talk to everyone’ confidence. I mean, what if they’re dismissive and rude (like the girl in this situation) – why put yourself in that position?

After having a think about it, I found the silver lining in our experience in the Lebkov cafe.

What if she was awesome?

What if she loved Rotterdam like us?

What if she became one of our best friends overseas?

All because we introduced ourselves and said ‘Hello’.

If you don’t put yourself out there, you’ll never know.

If you don’t find the courage to talk to strangers on the road (or at home), you’ll never know.

If you don’t make the effort to meet new people, get involved in the local culture and put yourself out there, you’ll never know and I guarantee you won’t have as much fun.

So what if they’re rude and think you’re weird? They’re a blip on the radar of all the fantastic people and friends you’re going to meet in the future by being spontaneous and awesome.

8 Responses to “Remember That Everyone You Meet Is A Potential Friend (Cue The Cheese)”

  1. SJ says:

    Awesome perspective Tommy, love your work. And you’re so right!! xo

  2. Ashleigh says:

    Geezzzz what a bitch! At least you tried, hats off to you!

  3. Laurence says:

    Yep, that’s totally her loss! Great, positive post to start my weekend with a smile, thanks guys 😀

  4. Nice blog Tom! Shame about this experience but good that you can write about this proper Dutch ho. Haha!

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