Just...talk

I am 28 years old.

It took me 28 years to figure something out. Something rather simple.

That simple thing is this: to have a conversation with someone, I just have to open my mouth and say whatever I’m thinking.

Sounds ludicrous that it took me so long to figure out that, doesn’t it? And yet it’s true.

That truth hit me like a spiritual revelation this summer. I was walking on my lunchbreak, with a coworker, to the corner pizza shop, and noticed myself thinking about the appearance of the fountain on the square. And without thinking about it, I opened my mouth and said what I was contemplating.

And my coworker responded with a comment.

And we had a conversation.

And that was it.

Alright, maybe someone out there is laughing. Go ahead, because yeah, it’s rather absurd that this was a revelation.

But it’s true–for the previous 28 years, I had thought that the way to have a conversation with a casual acquaintance was to think up something to say. It was very freeing to realize I didn’t have to put all that work into chatty conversations, after all.