Whatever helps you sleep at night

Small talk? Not sure I’m quite fond of it anymore. But I’ve learned that it helps break the ice between strangers, or make the que in a grocery store move quite faster. I was once a vast contributor to this polite conversations about unimportant or uncontroversial matters, wherever I walked, who I saw or even in a formal setting. I’d always have something to say. A friend of mine said she used small talk to her advantage, as a small business owner she has acquired great leads and prospects from engaging in small talk.

But trust me not everyone feels the same about it. Well I slowly retracted to engaging in small talk when I met people who delve a bit too much into the conversation with YOU as the topic of discussion. Trust me there’s a limit to what you can and may ask a stranger or an acquaintance, personally I’ve had my fair share of being grilled just by being polite and smiling to someone.

A recent encounter I’ve had with the topic at hand was with a woman in her mid-fourties, she was behind me in a que at a grocery store.

Curiously scanning my trolley she saw a magazine she had brought a few days ago and quickly commented that she didn’t like the person on the cover, I grinned politely and went back to what I was doing. Persistent as she appeared to be, she continued as said “Well, I won’t be purchasing this magazine anymore, it lacks substance and they have just lost it respect for, completely “

I loosened up and began commenting on how they changed editor’s and so forth. She nodded in agreement, but something didn’t quite feel right, because when I looked into her eyes, attempting to make eye contact, she kept looking away.

 I approached the till point, and brushed it away, thinking it must be a natural reflex.  I mean how many people do I know that look one another in the eye when they speak? I used to love practicing that with people, “The looking each other in the eye thing” and in my mind who ever looked away first lost the challenge. 

Nonetheless, I approached the till and completed my transaction, just as I was about to exit the store, she came running after me. “The woman “

At the corner of my eye I could see someone was approaching me, but who pays attention to such in a grocery store full of people.

Heyyy, she yelled at me. And my feet just could not stop moving. I kept walking she finally caught up and asked me to sit and began pouring her entire worries and problems on me. Her divorce, and how she drank herself in a pulp each night, trying to deal with being alone and not having anyone to talk to”

“You felt comfortable telling me that? Something so personal” I raised my voice in concern.

“Well if you’ve been through what I’ve been through, you’d do whatever makes you sleep at night”, she said.

A sudden urge to empathize swept over me, I told her to be strong and that things have a way of working out on they’re own. Yes, “  I honestly didn’t know what to say, I admit, I’ve never been in her situation”.

We parted ways, To this day, I’m afraid to make small talk, mainly due the fact that sometimes, people’s problem’s are better kept, sometimes we all don’t have the answer’s and offering an ear, may do more harm than giving  a shoulder to cry on.

Because we all are constantly waiting to find an answer, to why some don’t sleep at night.

Let’s not wait for the sun to shine in, but let us open the curtain’s and it shall be so.

_MisssMinnie