I felt this pervasive sadness and sense of insecurity and constant avoidance of eye-contact many times in public places when I lived and walked around in Evanston/ Chicago. Some of that I put down to the contrast from India where staring unabashedly at someone is not really considered rude and people take what they think is a 'healthy' (read active) interest in others' lives :) But after I'd lived there longer, I began to feel that this sense of hopelessness was palpable in some places, and was a real feeling in public there and not something I was imagining.

I'd just started engaging with ServiceSpace when I moved to the US. So after a point, inspired by DG and KS, I just started trying to compensate for that feeling by smiling tentatively (and a bit weakly) at people around me if I was standing in queue or walking -- I wanted to put out something more positive than follow the crowd vibe and my own growing feeling of insecurity within.

It led to a handful of moments when some people looked confused and then gave me some of the widest and sweetest smiles I've ever received from strangers in my life. Those moments were great. Many just ignored me, of course...

I'd not thought back to those moments for quite sometime so thank you for sharing this, Mia and I'm so glad you connected with Frank :) Here's to more connecting 'mistake' calls for all of us!