Walking across a college campus as small as Northeastern’s I am always bound to run into at least three or four people that I know. Typically this goes one of three ways: There is the courteous head nod, for acquaintances that I don’t really frequent with; The hello, a for close acquaintances (in the sense that I see them frequently but do not come and go with them); And then the stop and chat, either for people who I’d like to know better, or for really close friends. 

On my way back from my last class, I had a very unusual hello situation. For the hello, there is a typical socially agreed upon distance at which the hello is given, I’d estimate around 2-3 feet, giving each person adequate time to say their hellos before going on their way. This unusual hello was given at about 7 feet, bear in mind that this is a hello situation, I didn’t have any conversation to fill that extra 4 feet of time as I had barely even spoken with this “Far Helloer.” Hence I said hello, put on my most awkward smile for the remaining 3 feet, and went on my way.