journal 2 "what are your most common thoughts and feelings when you encounter someone different from yourself?

The most common thoughts and feelings when I encounter someone different from myself is;

In general I am reserved when meeting someone new, sometimes I am intimidated, yet other times I feel open to being friendly. In the past I have had great experiences by opening up and being nice and encountering someone new. When I first meet someone new I want to learn more about them. What is there name? Where are they from? Where do they live now? What are they doing? Down the road I would ask them more questions? What are their interests and what do they do for work? Eventually I wonder what do they think of me, and do they like me? When being friendly to others my personality is positive and open. This gives them opportunity to see the friend in me. Recently I was at a club for a friends birthday party and a young Chinese man from Australia was there. I had left the table to go to the bathroom and ran into him and I invited him to our table. I found out he was travelling alone around the world and staying in NYC renting an apartment for a month and doing tours throughout the NYC area(when i met him he only had two weeks left). He joined my friends and I for a short while and in the process we exchanged phone numbers. After that day we started text messaging each other. We eventually exchanged email addresses and he would keep me posted on his day to day adventures by writing his experiences on his tours. He also went to Niagara Falls. One day he called me and asked what I was doing on Sunday night and said he had two tickets for the Knicks and would I like to go. Of course I said "YES"! It would be a first time experience for both of us to go to a Knicks Basketball game at Madison Square Garden. They happened to be really good tickets we sat right behind Spike Lee and took lots of pictures during the game. As it was a festive environment it made for an easy and fun evening together. Our time together was cheering and clapping and yelling and smiling and getting food. As we hardly did know one another the entertainment of basketball filled in lots of gaps of insecurities. Right after the game I took the train home to Long Island and so we departed there, but I felt honored and blessed by the experience which I will forever remember. What I learned from meeting my new friend and pen pal is to not be afraid to be outgoing and respect and care for others. I feel God rewarded me with this very random and fun experience for opening up and being nice to others. This experiece has opened up my window of diversity and world view of having experienced a Knicks basketball game with a new friend from another country, Australia and another culture Chinese!

After continuing on and travelling through Europe Matthew Chan is now back in Australia but I still keep in touch with him!
I feel everyone is different from yourself but if you take a little time to become someones friend you never know how beautiful another person could bless your life.