"Nice to Meet You"

There are certain “greeting” formalities that at times I find humorous and even ridiculous. For instance, you walk into a party and see a friend who you haven’t seen in a while. It’s not a close friend but someone you’ve shared some laughs with and maybe a few drunken nights with but not someone you see on a daily basis. 

You make your way over to say hello and catch up for a few seconds, you hug and shake hands with your friend, banter back and forth a bit when you realize that their “date” has been completely ignored. Since you’re not a complete asshole, you kindly reach your hand out and introduce yourself. Then say, “Nice to meet you.” Then you immediately continue chatting with your friend while their date remains completely silent. When you finally depart, you leave with saying to their date, “it was really nice meeting you.” 

Now I have to ask, “Was it really that nice?” Why do we bother telling someone how nice it was meeting them when we don’t even remember their name? I guess it comes from “back in the day,” when everything was super formal at all times. I mean, it makes sense to be polite and all but I just seem to find myself in this situation more often than not and I could really care less about any of these, “nice to meet you” people. I guess we could walk away just saying “bye” and nothing else but that just seems too “informal.” 

On the other hand, I have to say that if these “nice to meet yous” would be a bit more engaging, then it actually would have been NICE to have made their acquaintance. But it seems that more times than not, they stand there like a deer in headlights without even so much as adding in one word or laughing along with the conversation…honestly not even smiling!

So while I will continue to be a polite person and tell people who have not even bothered to say one word to me, “it was nice meeting you”, I will also continue to ponder and eventually come up with something more truthful than, “Nice meeting you.” 

I am committed to making this my mission because I know that it could potentially make the world a better place. Picture it: meeting someone who it was really WAS nice to meet, someone who you will now continue to chat with and stay friendly with. As much as I believe that formality is a good thing, I think there needs to be different tiers of it so that we can actually stay meaningful in what we say. Now, ponder that.