Singles When Traveling: Singles Pack Conversation Props

OK, so Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday here in the United States are super big travel days, especially at the airports.  And if you are single and traveling to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with friends and family, not only should you not “take a break” from your dating efforts, you should in fact especially leverage travelers’ openness to talking with others to connect, socialize, and meet new people… Because indeed, you never know where your Soul Mate will enter your life.

Buses and Trains

I cited airport travel because that is the big travel method many are using with Wednesday as the biggest air travel day of the year.  However, if you are traveling by bus or train putting you together and mixing you with lots of other travels, these tips will work for you as well.

Car Driving Alone

Now if you are driving alone with almost no breaks to your point of destination, than today’s tip won’t help you a lot.  Go ahead and refer to yesterday’s TweetUp tip and come back and look at the Thanksgiving week Dating Tips I’ll be providing all week.

Be Approachable

While you are traveling in public with lots of mixing it up with fellow travelers in food courts, at the travel lounge, in the boarding area, and even at baggage claim, you want to be approachable.

Keep your body language open as often as possible.  Refrain from crossing your arms in front of you wrestling and wrangling your bags and winter gear.  When you do that, you are subtly communicating to others that you are not open to their talking with you.

Instead, keep your coat on the back of your chair or draped over your cart luggage to the side of you.  Don’t put everything in the seat next to you.  In fact, leave that seat open.

Ladies, in particular, this means refrain from putting your purse on the seat next to you.  Instead, put it down by your feet where you can still safely keep an eye on it while communicating in your body language that it is acceptable for others to sit next to you and even to talk with you a little.

Carry, Wear, and Pack Conversation Starting Props

The other part about Be Approachable is carry, wear, and pack some conversation starting props.

This can mean wearing a sports cap.  It is best to wear one which is genuine to your sport interest as well as to a team for whom you root.  In the San Jose airport, sporting a San Jose Sharks Hockey jersey could garner a few enthusiastic comments from the crowd.  Of course when you land in the John Wayne airport right by Anaheim, home of the Anaheim Ducks hockey team, you might receive a few well-meaning jeers.  However, all of those are, indeed, openings to conversations.

Pick up a good book from the New York times Best Seller List at your local Barnes and Noble  or purchase one at the airport to carry with you and read both to stimulate your mind and to stimulate the potential conversations others can have with you.   If you purchase it at the airport, you can even leverage your shopping time to interact with the other shoppers around you for their input, thoughts and recommendations for what you should purchase.

Be sure to pack some interesting conversation starters as well, like your high school year book which you can pull out and peruse on the airplane or in the baggage claim area when you are in the “returning home” sort of trip returning to the area where you went to high school.  Invariably in baggage claim you might run into other fellow alumni perhaps from another graduating class than yours.

Alternatively, you might run into people from the other schools in your area which your year book will create an opening for you all to have a short conversation.

These sort of conversations could comfortably segue to grabbing a beer together downtown or being invited to some informal alumni gatherings over the holiday weekend.

When you are traveling for business or pleasure, remember to stay open to meeting and mingling with others and come prepared with conversation opening props to make starting a conversation with you easy.  Additionally, do be sure to pick up on the conversation starting props which others are wearing, carrying, and have packed along with them.  As you do so, you will be comfortably meeting many new people, one of who could be or could lead you to your Soul Mate.

Until next time,

Happy Dating and Relationships,

April Braswell