Ryan Comm 101:

so this may seem painfully obvious to some of ya’ll out there, but there was something i kinda realized over the past week or so that is just so painfully obvious that it doesn’t really get noticed.

in social situations, if you don’t feel like talking, just ask the other person “how was your day?” or “how did such-and-such problem go?” in all actuallity, most people are readily avalible to talk to you about your problems, complain, or just talk about themselves. i think i always kinda knew this, but it just made me not want to ask, because asking would inevitably lead to it, and it bugged me.

but now, i look at it as a great cop out. it’s not like it matters what gets said or not said to me. so if i don’t talk or talk, it’s basically the same thing in the end. and if i got to talk to someone to alleviate some sort of social awkwardness (that term always makes me smile) all i gotta do is ask people the question they want to be asked because once that barrier is overcome, they can talk to their hearts content. if i don’t ask, then they feel like they’re just whining about whatever. but if i give them permission to whine about whatever, then suddenly it’s not all on them, and the floodgates can open.

and some people can really keep the ball rolling once the floodgate has been opened, other people might take more of a line of questioning to keep things going, but i find that most of the people i interact want to talk in some fashion or another. they’re almost dying to sometimes. and i’ll admit i’m like this sometimes too, i mean something exciting or out of the ordinary happened to me, so i want to relate it to someone. but this doesn’t happen very often due to relative routine of my life. some people can just go off of nothing though, and continue to talk about nothing for hours on end. this is fascinating to me. i mean, pulling all this meaning out of the same old shit is really a skill. turning the mundane into something to talk about (time-wise, not content-wise) is pretty damn common, but to make it somewhat interesting is pretty impressive. needless to say, there are very few people who can do this (including myself), and watching someone in action is always interesting.

but yeah, then once you get the ball rolling, you can just let it go off it’s own momentum, and then all you gotta do is nod and agree, and occasionally throw their words back at them. talk about some great time killing! just make sure not to disagree or provide any provocative comments, otherwise you might have to start thinking, and interacting, because about 90% of the time, it really isn’t worth it. probably 97% actually….

so i think that’s about it, i got some other stuff i waas thinking about personality and personage that i got out of a book i read recently, so i’m putting that down now to make sure i write about it.

until then, it’s back to school for a few more hours (well maybe more than a few) <———– Whining About Self!

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so i’ll get back to it!