The other day, Shaan and I went to a pub down the street to watch the Warriors game. We sat at the bar and ordered some drinks and food.

After a minute, the voices of two guys sitting to the left of me caught my ear. They were speaking in northern English accents, accents that brought me back to my undergraduate days in York. Beyond occasionally seeing my York friends on trips back to London, the northern English accent is one I seldom hear, but one that feels nostalgic and brings me back to good times. It’s not an accent I’ve encountered in San Francisco before, so this time piqued my interest.

As I watched the game, sipped my wine, and ate my supremely gooey mac and cheese, I heard snippets of the conversation next to me and continued to wonder where up north the two guys were from.

Eventually, there was a pause in their conversation and so I turned to them and asked, “Mind me asking where you’re from?”

They answered generally with “England,” but I wanted more specifics. So I asked where in England (Leeds) and then I told them I’d studied in York (very close to Leeds), with Shaan joining the conversation as well. We ended up chatting about the north, their trip to the US, and San Francisco until it was time for them to leave to catch their flight back to the UK.

It was a pleasant conversation and I felt good about taking the initiative to strike up a conversation with a stranger. It made me think about my mom’s natural ability to do this and specifically about one conversation she had with a stranger that turned out to be quite cool. I wasn’t actually there to witness it, but it still left an impression.

A few years ago, my parents took a flight within the US. We learned from my mom after the flight that she’d made a new friend on the flight – the mother of Klay Thompson, one of the Warriors’ star players. (For those of you lacking basketball savvy, the Warriors – whose game I was watching the pub – are the leading NBA team, and I’ve become a massive fan of theirs over the years. And Klay Thompson is a top player famous for his crazy scoring streaks.)

Anyway, my mom had apparently struck up a conversation with Thomson’s mom on the plane and they really hit it off. My mom told us later about learning that the entire Thompson family was a family of stellar athletes, not only in basketball but baseball too. And turns out, the two of them bonded so well during that plane ride that they even exchanged phone numbers! We were very impressed and excited about the new connection.

What’s I like about this story is a couple things. One is just how quickly my mom made an impression on someone, and how that resulted in – in a very short period – a new and unexpected friendship. Everyone knows my mom as one to make a wonderful and meaningful first impression. Her charisma speaks for itself.

I wrote a post a while back on my mom befriending everyday strangers and this is similar. I said in that post that to her, “everyday strangers” were just friends in the making. I was talking about these strangers specifically in the context of people who provide a service and whom we encounter regularly but often overlook, like a cashier or air hostess. In today’s instance, Thompson’s mom was just a passing stranger who happened to be on the same flight. But the same theme is apparent regardless.

I’m not usually someone who strikes up a conversation with people I don’t know. When I get on a plane these days, I’m the person who politely smiles at the passenger next to me and hopes that’s our one and only interaction. So it was a little out of character for me to make that connection in the pub, and probably why I now feel all smug!

For my mom, though, this kind of interaction was more standard. And so the other thing I like about this story is that it exemplifies her open-mindedness and approachability responsible for this tendency. The world is a place of diverse and interesting people, but many of us may go through life connecting largely with those who are familiar or comfortable. By being open to meeting others and welcoming interactions, my mom was able to connect with unfamiliar faces who came from different walks of life.

My mom meeting Klay Thompson’s mom shows you never know who you’re going to meet, if you’re open to the opportunity. It could be the future president, or it could be your next best friend. Or it could just be someone who you have one pleasant conversation with in the pub and never see again. But isn’t that the fun of it?