Walking Socially

 Going to the dog park for a walk is a strange experience, mostly because most of the walks we've discussed have been, in my mind, alone. I instinctively think that every walk we talk about is maybe not meant to be alone, but is implied to be solo. At the dog park, you may arrive alone (with your dog, typically), but it is almost impossible to go without some sort of interaction. At its busiest times, there are up to thirty people there, almost all of them having nothing better to do than chat with the other people there. It is also so much different as the age demographics of people vary wildly. There are plenty of college-age students, but also a range up to the elderly, too, as many of the locals prefer the specific dog park that I go to. 

I normally like to just walk around the outskirts of the park, get my steps in, and watch from afar as my dog enjoys its social time. By doing this, though, I am missing out on learning about so many different people, all with wildly different things to tell me. I’ve found myself talking to an older married couple and learned that they live in Texas, selling technology to Texas Instruments. I learned that once they had their kids move out, they bought a house simply to party with their friends, and that the house had ten bedrooms. I spoke to a little boy who was showing me his Minecraft world on his tablet, and he was more proud of that than I have been of anything I’ve done in the last four years. I've listened in on a college kid giving horrible health advice to an elderly couple. These interactions are some that you cannot find normally, as most people are too busy to stop and have a conversation with you. At the dog park, no one has anything better to do than give you their life story, and I find it quite interesting.

Walking around with strangers can provide you with an outlook that you don't necessarily need to follow, but some that you can keep in mind. It gives you perspective on how everyone's lives are so much different, and that there is no one way to live your life. People are also so quick to give advice, and while you don't need to make every piece of advice a key part of your life, I've found it helpful to still give the advice the time of day, and the dog park is where I've gotten most of it.

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