Are You Listening?

I wouldn’t consider myself an eavesdropper, however I find that being something of a people watcher I also listen to others more than I talk. Combo that with being quite shy, and what you get is me not really saying a whole lot around people who I’m not close friends with. However the rub really comes when I do feel comfortable with people. Because I am still listening just as much as before, I somehow feel it’s ok to express my opinions and enter into conversations in which I am not always welcome…or at least my opinions aren’t. Thus leaving me feeling like I’ve got tourettes or something like it.

Speaking of tourettes the other night at FHE I was walking through to another room and people were lining either side of the hallway and talking to each other across the walking area, so in order to make it slightly less awkward I said “What’s up?” loud enough for those around to hear, yet kept walking. I kept walking because I wasn’t really trying to start a conversation or anything, like I already said I was trying to make it less awkward. It was at that moment that I realized that what had happened was in fact similar in nature to when people who have tourettes spout obscenities or something completely off the wall and people just dumbfoundedly stare.

So I asked my friend a little while later, “Do you ever feel like you have tourettes when you say hello to people?” She giggled and then said she in fact did feel that way as well from time to time.