Before you start reading this, I’m going to point out that I will come off as a huge hypocrite as I write this article. Perhaps after writing this article, that might change. And then again, that might not — we’ll see. What I hope to accomplish with this article is a way to hold myself accountable and keep my actions in line with my thoughts.

Sometimes, there are people that you instantly take a liking to, regardless of whether or not you know them. You see them around, whether it be in your class, workplace or a nearby coffeeshop that you frequent. There are a lot of these people in our lives but they come and go just as cars pass us by on a daily basis. You might think that shiny Lamborghini is the most gorgeous car you’ve ever seen, but you’re never going to stop by to read the license plate, find out who’s driving it or what it looks like on the inside.

Then there are the people that you miss once they’re gone. Even if you’ve never really spoken to them or never really got to know them. And you just want to see them once more, just to get that one opportunity to talk to this person and say hello. You know it’s the last time you'll see them, and in your head, you can work out all the different scenarios that will lead to the chance to get to know them. In the final minutes, you just have to go up to them and say hello.

But we never do.

Because at this point it’s “weird.” Who would go up on the last day of class and say hello to a random person?

Sometimes I wonder if I believe in destiny too much. Because my head justifies my lack of courage with the answer that “if it was meant to be, it would have happened.” But what would have happened? A scenario that forces me to interact with the said person? The person would have come and said hello to me?

The truth is, we never know. This doesn’t mean I am ready to throw my belief in destiny totally out of the window, but I think that we do get a hand in our destiny.

Just saying hello may give us the opportunity to realize that this person is exactly who you were looking forward to meeting. Or it may show us that we don’t really like this person. Or it may show us that we can’t judge a book by its cover because there may even be some pleasant surprises.

It doesn’t have to be perfect. Too often, our heads can get caught up in the world on the reel, where it’s about the grand moments and gestures that pave the way to the amazing relationship formed between two people.

As an audience member, we know that it is a grand gesture because we see how the movie pans out. We see what the action or moment has set into motion that results in a beautiful relationship.

In the real life, we don’t know the ending. We don’t know what the grand gesture is.

But what if that grand gesture was simply a hello?