Today was so fun. I flew home after being at the Onething conference at Bartle Hall in Kansas City, Mo. I was able to see friends and hang out with people I had spent 6 months with during an internship I did in the summer of ‘10 and it was great to have a time away from school to relax and catch up with people I love to spend time with.

On the airplane, I talked with the strangers next to me. It was so eye opening to engage complete strangers and being able to ask questions and get honest opinions and deep conversations with people I’ve never met. 

At first I opened it up with small talk, simply asking where they were going. My second question was this, “If you could give some life advice to a 19 year old, what would it be?”

Pete and Monica, an older couple in their mid to late 50s shared some great practical money advice with me and gradually the conversation went on for awhile.

We talked mostly about traveling because Pete and Monica have been all over the country and it was really neat to listen to a bunch of wild stories about their lives. They’ve been on several cruises, motorcycled across the country, rebuilt old classic cars, and had some wacky, funny encounters with people too.

I asked them about their marriage and how they kept it fresh and real, and they were super honest and gave some great insight after being married for 22 years. It was really neat to see them interact with each other, their eyes sparkled and they were totally in love.

We ended up talking for the entire flight, which was about close to 4 hours long.

Monica encouraged me to write down my dreams and start set a vision and pursue them.

We parted ways after exchanging hugs and I’ll probably never see them again.

It’s so cool to be able to step out and ask people questions, because honestly (in the words of my fellow intern David Park) people just want someone to listen to them. People have such neat life stories and have so much practical wisdom you can totally come away with.

2012 is off to a great start.