by Brittany Neigh

HELLO！ November 21st is World Hello Day！ World Hello Day has been celebrated annually[一年一次] on this date since 1973.

When I was a kid， I was very shy. I took part in a lot of activities that forced extroversion[外向]， like drama and orchestra[管弦樂隊(duì)]， but communicating with strangers always put me a little on edge[緊張]. When I consider where I grew up， its really no surprise： Woodbridge， Virginia， was a great place， but it was so close to the fast-paced capital city that people often sped past each other without taking a moment to make eye contact， let alone say hello. I lived in that environment for so long that when I moved to the small college town of Harrisonburg to attend James Madison University， I was shocked that strangers in the mall would say hi for no other reason than that we were walking past each other. And it didnt stop there： strangers even held the door for each other！ At first I was a little freaked out[嚇壞了]， but eventually[最后] I got used to it. This small town attitude was one of the things that made me most proud of Harrisonburg. When I left， I tried to carry its pleasant disposition[特性；傾向] with me.

To celebrate this day of greeting， my friend， Chris， and I made sure we said hello to at least ten people today. We both work in an office with handfuls of coworkers， which makes reaching that small goal pretty simple—something we both do on a daily basis.

But we also made sure to say hello to plenty of strangers today. For me， it was the people in the elevator， the customer service representative[代表] at one of our local stores， and the cashier[（商店等的）出納員] in the restaurant.

I know it sounds silly since we didnt really have to go out of our way to say hello， but if you stand back and watch， its shocking how many people dont start a conversation with any type of greeting at all. Instead， they abruptly[唐突地] bark out[大聲喊出] their question. Im glad that todays “unofficial” greetings helped me realize the importance of that simple goal， and that something as simple as a “hello” might make a difference not only in a persons day， but in shaping the peace of our world.

你好！11月21日是世界問候日！自從1973年以來，人們都會(huì)在這天慶祝這個(gè)一年一度的節(jié)日。

當(dāng)我還是個(gè)孩子的時(shí)候，我很害羞。我參加了很多可以迫使我變得外向的活動(dòng)，比如戲劇和管弦樂，但和陌生人溝通始終讓我有點(diǎn)緊張。想想我成長的地方，就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)一點(diǎn)也不奇怪：（美國）弗吉尼亞州的伍德布里奇是一個(gè)很不錯(cuò)的地方，但它太靠近那個(gè)快節(jié)奏的州首府了，所以人們往往擦身而過，根本沒有時(shí)間進(jìn)行眼神交流，更不用說打招呼了。我在那種環(huán)境下生活得太久了，以至于當(dāng)我搬到哈里森堡這個(gè)大學(xué)小鎮(zhèn)入讀詹姆斯麥迪遜大學(xué)的時(shí)候很是意外——購物中心里的陌生人會(huì)向我們打招呼，不為什么，僅僅是因?yàn)槁愤^而已。還不止這些呢：不認(rèn)識(shí)的人甚至?xí)腿朔鲋T！一開始，我有點(diǎn)被嚇到了，但最終還是適應(yīng)過來。這個(gè)小鎮(zhèn)的態(tài)度是哈里森堡最讓我引以為豪的其中一點(diǎn)。離開的時(shí)候，我希望把這種友好的特質(zhì)也一并帶走。

為了慶祝這個(gè)問候的日子，我的朋友克里斯和我決定在今天至少向十個(gè)人打招呼。我們倆在一個(gè)有一堆同事的辦公室工作，所以要達(dá)到這個(gè)小小的目標(biāo)很簡單——我們每天都可以做到。但我們今天也決定一定要向很多不認(rèn)識(shí)的人打招呼。對我來說，他們是電梯里的人、當(dāng)?shù)啬臣疑痰昀锏目头?，以及餐廳里的收銀員。

我知道這聽起來挺傻的，因?yàn)槲覀儾恍枰鍪裁闯龈竦男袨槿ゴ蛘泻?，但如果你退一步看看，看到有多少人是完全不?huì)先說聲問候（任何方式）再開始一段對話，而是唐突地大聲提問，這是多么讓人吃驚。我很高興今天這些“非正式”的問候幫我意識(shí)到那個(gè)簡單的目標(biāo)的重要性，一些簡單如說聲“你好”的事情也許不僅僅會(huì)改變一個(gè)人的一天，還可能會(huì)影響這個(gè)世界的和平呢。