Passionate Advice

New York City attracts people for different reasons. A married woman indulges in a girls' weekend with her friends. A young couple explores the large city and all that it has to offer. A college student and her Grammie visit the city for the first time with hopes to explore it by bike. Then there's me - a college student who meets up with her mom from California for a little weekend getaway.

While all of these people are from different backgrounds and have various purposes in their travel, they take the same form of transit and therefore are united in a small way.

The lady sitting in front of me on the Transbridge bus from Bethlehem to Port Authority was talking to another woman sitting across the aisle. She shared a secret gem of New York - a beauty salon converted into a club. From the outside it merely looks like a beauty salon, but on the inside it is a hopping place at night. The one receiving the secret advice asked, "Where is it and what is it called?"

The insider lady responded, "It's in Brooklyn. I wouldn't be able to tell ya what it's called but it just looks like a typical beauty salon on the outside."

As we drove through Bethlehem to get to the freeway, the man sitting in front of the insider lady shared information about their whereabouts. The advice-receiver asked what town we were in and the man shared that we were driving through Bethlehem and to the left was Fountain Hill. He shared the locations of several houses that he had lived in.

Sharing bits of information of their lives, the insider lady, the advice-receiver and the man formed a small bond. They had inside glimpses into certain aspects of each other's lives and shared experiences to help enhance the future experiences of the strangers they had just met.

We give advice, and we take advice. From who? From anyone who offers it. Whether it be a stranger offering directions to the closest Starbucks or a close friend recommending a delicious restaurant, we take the advice thankfully.

These are the things that bond strangers - passions over a commonality. The insider lady and the advice-receiver both want to have a fun time at a club in New York. The man and the advice-receiver both have an interest in the geographical location that they are traveling through. The married woman, the young couple, the college student and her Grammie and I share our destination - New York City - and our journey to that destination. Advice shared amongst us allows opportunities to experience something incredible whether it be a hidden gem or merely a connection with a stranger.