KEN BURGER: So, what's your story, stranger?

I'm a nosy individual. I ask a lot of questions. It comes with the job.

I've been a reporter so long, I think nothing of walking up to strangers and asking them where they're from, how they got here, where they grew up, if they're married, have children, what their parents did for a living, where they went to school, how long they've lived here, what kind of work they do and if they're happy.

That's how I start a conversation, which is not where it ends.

I tend to interview people. I believe people's lives are complex, unpredictable, exciting, troubled, rewarding, predisposed, accidental and ultimately intriguing.

And it's amazing what people will tell a total stranger.

Simply curious

If you happen to sit next to me on a flight from Charleston to Atlanta, a 45-minute hop, I'm likely to know your life story before we deplane.

That's because I'm genuinely interested in the details. I want to know if you had a happy childhood, if you moved a lot, if you married your high school sweetheart, if it worked out, if you grew up to be what you thought you'd be, or not.

I might ask what your middle name is, if it's a family name, if you have siblings, and if so, how many, older or younger, boys or girls and if you're close.

Some people, of course, are uncomfortable with this kind of questioning. They look at you funny. They think you're up to something.

But, truth is, I'm simply curious about everybody's life and how they live it.

Because, when it comes right down to it, some of life's most important decisions we get to make for ourselves, while others are made for us.

And almost all are made with whatever information and options are available at the time.

Fork in the road

If you diagram your life, marking each fork in the road and which way you went, you might see a pattern.

Did you always take the easiest path, the one of least resistance, the one somebody told you to take, the one you knew better than to take or the one that presented the safest outcome?

They all look different in hindsight, don't they?

But at the time, you probably made those decisions based on your financial circumstances, level of maturity, fear of failure, need for security, infatuation, family pressure, ignorance, naivete or the simple fact that it was a rainy Tuesday afternoon in February and you had a bad head cold.

Life can turn on the simplest of notions, you know.

What if your father hadn't made it home from the war? Or your mother didn't wear that red dress the night of the prom? Or the library had been closed that day your grandmother ducked in from the rain and met your granddad?

Did you meet the love of your life because you missed one bus and had to take another? What if you had been born in a different town, state or country? Would you still have married the girl next door and lived happily ever after?

Just curious.

Have a nice flight.

Have a nice life.

Reach Ken Burger at 937-5598 or on Twitter at @Ken_Burger.