Sleepover

Last night my nephew Terrance, who is 7 and in the 2nd grade, spent the night with me. I'm sure it wasn't REAL fun for him, because I had errands, etc., to do, but he seemed to enjoy himself regardless. We went to the store, dropped some things off at Tanner's house, went home to watch endless episodes of Spongebob Squarepants, and eat fruit snacks, kids' cuisine, and cinnamon toast crunch. I did laundry and ate toasted cheese - somehow his sounds like more fun. Anyway, I noticed something interesting about Terrance - maybe it's his personality or maybe because he's 7, but he's really uninhibited when it comes to talking to people. While in the store, we saw several people from a distance that he thought he recognized - so he hollered at them! What a hoot! If I see someone from a distance that I think I might recognize, I don't say a word - I would probably rather not be embarassed if I'm wrong or if they don't remember me, so I would not have the guts to do what he did - and that was to say, "hey, do I know you?" One guy was an older student that Terrance recognized from seeing him in the computer room at the grade school - the guy was very gracious and talked with Terrance for a little while. It just reminded me of how we shouldn't miss an opportunity to follow our hearts...to smile and say hello to someone we used to know or someone we think we may or may not know. At what age does society and learning to behave "correctly" squeeze that spontaneous "hey - do I know you" out of us? Wouldn't it be fun if even just for a day, we all followed our little "inklings" to say hi or re-kindle an old friendship by asking "hey - don't I know you?"