Every safety lecture I’ve ever sat through tells you not to do what I did.
I was driving slowly through campus, the way you do when you’re not really going anywhere, when a guy knocked on my passenger window. He looked a little stranded, gestured vaguely toward the other end of the parking lot, and asked if I could give him a ride to his car.
A reasonable, well-adjusted person would have politely said no. I am, apparently, neither of those things. I unlocked the door.
He got in, thanked me, and we made small talk for the thirty seconds it took to drive across the lot. Then, because I was already off-script, I doubled down: my friend and I were headed to Target, did he want to come?
He said yes.
That Target run is one of the most random things I’ve ever done in my life and somehow also one of the best. We wandered the aisles, talked about nothing, and by the time we were back in the car it didn’t really feel like he was a stranger anymore. He gave me his number on the way out. A week later I was at his Super Bowl party, eating questionable dip and meeting all of his friends, who are now also my friends.
That was three years ago.
Since then he has been at basically every important thing in my life. He has met my family. He has bailed me out of plans I didn’t want to be at. He once spent an entire afternoon fixing my car for me, refusing to let me pay him, and then made fun of me for not knowing what a serpentine belt was. He’s the kind of friend you accidentally make once and then can’t imagine your life without.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you to let strangers into your car. Every adult in my life would like a word with me about it, even now. But I will say this: some of the best people in your life are going to show up in ways that don’t make sense on paper. They’ll knock on the wrong window at the right time. They’ll say yes to a Target run with two girls they just met. They’ll fix your car and refuse the money.
Sometimes the universe hands you something good and the only correct response is to unlock the door.