We all know them. We see them everywhere and we don’t always pay much attention to them. They are strangers, after all. We’re in our heads a lot and we’re too afraid to interact with them because of what could happen. I myself, like to take a risk and talk to strangers. It doesn’t always work out great, but once in a blue moon, you meet someone and it makes your day.

As a disclaimer, I will say not every stranger should be talked to. Some strangers are really weird and those are the ones you want to avoid. One minute you’re sitting on the trolley next to your friend who happens to have a service dog and the next minute, a weird guy walks up to you and starts talking about how coyotes are going to eat the dog, how he can talk to the ravens (or crows, because according to him, ravens don’t exist anymore) and about how soft your hair will be if you take vitamins while doing crystal meth (true story).

But I digress. People have interesting things to say. They also have good advice and you might be surprised at how well you get along with them. As I type this, I’m in a waiting room in a hospital next to my uncle because my grandpa fell ill. My whole family came to see him. At one point, I was waiting for my sister and aunts to get out of the restroom when a janitor popped out of the room in front of where I was standing. I didn’t really think much of it until we made eye contact and I, trying not to be rude, said “hi.” He said “hi” in return. I work in an environment full of people, so it’s usual for me to at least wave and say “hi” to them. So when he replied, I didn’t know what to say. He was a guy who cleans rooms in hospitals and I’m just a guy who happens to write for a college newspaper, so I didn’t think we had much in common. He asked how everything was going and I said it was fine, aside from my grandpa being in the hospital, of course.

That’s when it started. He asked me why my grandpa was in there and I told him it was because he had a heart attack while crossing the border. Then there was the classic, “Is he okay,” “Yeah, he’s better,” part of the conversation. I didn’t think it was weird because I’m guessing a lot of people talk to him about that. The funny thing is I felt comfortable enough to tell him I would understand if my grandpa was gone but I would be devastated. I told him about how I’m my grandpa’s favorite grandson because I’m the first male of the family and how my sisters and cousins have to call him Tony because he disowned them (jokingly, of course; he loves all of us). I told him about my 14-year-old uncle and about how I’m scared of what will happen to him if my grandpa passes away. I told him about my grandpa being a diabetic and how he doesn’t take care of himself. I told him all of this for no good reason and he was a stranger. Heck, all of you readers are strangers, but I’m telling you all of this.

You see, strangers aren’t always dangerous or weird. A lot of them have good advice to offer and often it’s worth listening to—provided that they don’t start talking about how meth and vitamins will make my hair feel smooth. I have faith in the world. I believe that there are more people in the world who are willing to help than are not. Growing up, we’re led to believe strangers will kidnap or hurt us, but that might not be the case at all. I’ve had some really good conversations with strangers. Heck, our best friends started out as strangers. Sometimes everything works itself out. In the end, there’s more to people than meets the eye.