I was walking to work when an older gentleman sitting outside the train station waved at me, smiled, and said in a hearty tone; 'cheer up sweetheart, it can only get better!'.
This is not the first time I have been accosted in such a manner by a random old man. When I was eighteen and in Belgium (both fairly miserable places to be), I was wandering around trying to figure out what on earth I was doing in Belgium when an old man on a ladder shouted at me 'tu es très jolie, ne sois pas triste!' (you are very pretty, don't be sad!). Both times that this has happened to me I have not even been feeling especially sad. Both times I have just been wandering along, minding my own business, maybe daydreaming a bit, and total strangers have told me to buck up. The other thing that many, many strangers and people I don't know very well have felt the need to tell me is that I am an 'old soul', which I don't really know what it means. Both of these things have made me very self-conscious about the way in which I present myself to the world. Apparently I look sad and old. Terrific.
Anyway, I happened to see the train station old man again later that day and I gave him a big smile and a wave, and he said 'that's the way, I told you it would get better!'. It hadn't, but it did feel like it for a moment. And that's why crazy old men are awesome.
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