Lesson #3: People aren't so bad

Ellie passed out after a day of socializing at her first wedding. 

I’m not the most outgoing person you’ll ever meet. While working as a journalist, sure, I talked to a lot of strangers. But, when I’m not wearing my journalist hat, I’m not one to strike up a conversation with a stranger unless I have a pretty good reason. This is something Ellie is teaching me I’m going to have to change. Because, as anyone who has been around babies or small children in public has seen, they haven’t learned to keep to themselves yet.

Ellie will be five-months-old in about a week, and she seems to be learning new sounds and pitches every day. She likes to make her presence known, no matter where she is or who she’s around. She’s got smiling down and she has the sweetest giggle. She’s also pretty outgoing. She’ll give up a smile for anybody and it doesn’t matter if she’s never met you before, if you make the right goofy face, she’ll even give you a giggle.

She went to a wedding and a rehearsal dinner the last two weekends in a row, and at both she spread her wings and socialized as well as anyone could. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t met 99% of the people at both events, or that nearly every guest at wedding #1 had a turn in holding her, she was just fine. In fact, she was better than fine. She smiled, she laughed, she cooed, and she passed out hard at the end of the day. I, meanwhile, was a nervous wreck. How would she react to all of these new people? And what about at wedding #2, where I knew only a handful of people?

I was a shy kid and as an adult, I’ve continued my practice of keeping to myself in situations where I don’t know people. Ellie, meanwhile, will engage with strangers and has no problem smiling or cooing at a complete stranger. Sure, she’s only four-months-old, this could change. But, I hope it doesn’t. I hope she always has this outgoing personality and never loses the innocence that allows her to so easily interact with anyone. (Obviously she’ll be taught about strangers when she gets older, but I think you know what I mean here.)

Ellie is teaching me to be more outgoing, to give people a chance and that offering a smile to a stranger isn’t such a bad idea. And as far as making conversation with strangers in public, she’s really given me no choice, a sweet baby is a people magnet!