Party conversations

"In girl world, Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it." - Mean Girls

After looking for fake snakes or anything resembling a Dalmatian for either a Medusa costume or to stage Cruella, I gave up and bought a pirate hat. Surprisingly, I liked how the pirate costume ended up looking.

I prefer house parties to clubs because you can actually meet new people and have a conversation. Conversations with strangers late at night are the interesting ones as they remind you that there are so many people outside of your own bubble.

I enjoyed the conversation with Ben the most because we had seemingly so little in common, but after five minutes we were talking about matters that only close friends talk about. Ben had recently gone through a breakup and was visiting a friend from out of town. His girlfriend, who he had been dating for a year, had decided she couldn't bear the long distance and called it quits. Although this happened only a fortnight ago, Ben appeared to have reached the stage of acceptance, the key word here being 'appeared'. I don't think he was over the relationship that quickly, especially if the reason for the break-up was, as he put it, "just down to distance". I talked to Ben as if he were a friend, even though I estimated him to be five years older than he actually was. The conversation felt comforting. I told him about my troubles and he listened attentively. We shared our truths and ended the conversation by introducing ourselves.

Not every conversation with a stranger goes like this, there are plenty of people who hold back, justifiably so. However, it is so liberating to confide in someone and get to know them while discussing meaningful topics. Whereas it can be so draining to have a conversation that consists only of small talk and meaningless topics. Therefore my appeal is to have more conversations of this kind and don't be afraid to confide in others, and make others feel they can also confide in you, you never know how much someone might need it.

Me and Ben didn't exchange phone numbers or any social media links, we just said our farewells. Hopefully, he and his girlfriend will be able to make it work.