LINK: put on your listening ears
Are you a good listener?
Prompt snagged from: NY Times
I’d like to think that I am. I don’t talk as much as others. I’d rather listen. I enjoy being the quiet one, just observing, absorbing… but writing, that’s a different story. I could write for hours about nothing or about everything. When it comes to talking, I’ve been told that I’m succinct by my friends and colleagues.
I think that’s partly why my exes liked me. I actually listened. Or maybe it’s because I genuinely liked the sound of their voices. They would speak with such passion. I loved watching how their mouths moved as they spoke. I’d be nodding along, pretending to hang on to every word, while half my brain debated whether or not I should lean in and kiss them mid-sentence. If they only knew what I was thinking as they were talking…
Even in school, I could sit through lectures for hours if the professor was engaging enough. Well, except one, my Indian biology professor. Normally, I’m good with accents, I mean my own parents have strong accents so no biggie, right? I’ve been surrounded by immigrants my whole life from all over the world. But when the biology professor said, “And when the mikroginisms devil up,” I was completely lost. I remember thinking, how the fuck am I going to learn? Should I drop this class and wait for next semester? Fuck me. This has never happened to me before, even with other Indian or Pakistani professors. So, I started recording her lectures, listening to them again when I got home, rewinding and pausing every few minutes, trying to decipher her words. I don’t think I ever worked so hard for one class, not even biochem.
Are you a talker or a listener?
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