I don’t do small talk, it’s awkward as hell and suffocating in its own agonizing way if someone tries to force me to engage in boring nothingness. However, there is a weird, rude habit that many adults in my circle do now and I’m not having any of it. What the hell happened to these people? They act like they have the attention span of toddlers.
Conversations are meant to be 2-way. More and more, I’m encountering people who have the inability to listen, seem to be terribly distracted or they talk over me and don’t stop when they realize they’ve overlapped, continuing to drown my voice out, unable to give their undivided attention for even less than 10 seconds when I speak, which is about the average length of my talking before I pause and let the other person respond. I can’t decide if its just bad form or they are of low stock.
Now, when this happens, I just abruptly stop talking, turn and walk away as if a conversation has never even taken place. I don’t care if they realize what they’ve done and try to catch up with me later, I. AIN’T. TALKING. I’ve spent a whole childhood and most of my adult life NOT TALKING and I’m damned good at it. This dysfunctional communication from others has been happening way too often. The worst thing another human can do to me is treat me as if I don’t exist.
Fair warning, my fairweather friends. I’ve been there for you all these years, quietly listening to your nonstop problems. I’m ruthless when I’ve grown weary of the game I ain’t playing in the first place.