MOC day 17: Human connection

The connections you can make with strangers through home exchnge are really interesting and while usually fleeting, can also be ongoing. This interaction was very fleeting but still lives in my head ....
Unsplash image by MartinSepion

With "No Place Like Home" and "Here and Now" template

There is something very special about home exch*nge (especially in the early days). If I find myself single I think I will definitely appreciate it even more as a way to connect and interact with people as well as a way to travel cheaply and explore living in a new place. If I am living in a place that has space for it, I may even think about offering hospitality stays (where you host someone while you are still at home). I was surprised in 2019 when someone I had approached on the off chance about using guest points for their home (it was close to E’s then-flat) did just that. In the end of course, E moved back home and that trip turned into the jaunt across Spain and France instead. BUT that interaction still lives in my head. It was in the darkest of the dark weeks when any thought of resuming a relationship seemed outrageous. After making the offer in our messaging, they asked why I was up so early. I explained that since a ‘life implosion’, sleep was somewhat elusive. They then shared with me their own current dilemma that was keeping them awake, and we took it to email. I don’t think they had shared it with anyone else before then. It was a strange, pre-dawn interaction with a total stranger who I will probably never meet, but I will never forget it. I hope they are well and happy.