Don't be boring as fuck

Dear Blog Diary,
I remember I went to a Reds game maybe four years back. I was with a few friends and then we met up with their friends whom I didn’t know.

This was back when being in crowded bars didn’t kill my soul as much.

One of these friends of a friend and I were at the bar, and I made a horrific mistake. I asked her the simple question, “what are you passionate about?” What gets your blood flowing? Turns your crank, gets you excited in the morning.

Because of this question, I later found out that she gave her friend a tug as if to say “get this creep away from me, got a weird one here.”

Now maybe she was just being polite, not wanting to ramble on about herself. I’m often that way. But in my experience, when people get asked that question and they react that way or like it…it’s because they don’t know the answer and they are pissed off that now you know it too.

I rather enjoy hearing people rant about what they love, even if I have zero interest in the actual thing. They brighten up or hone into what seems like their most genuine selves.

Now my theory is, in your 20s these are the questions you ask at bars/parties/barbecues:
1. What do you do?
2. Where are you from?
3. Where do you live?
4. What restaurants do you frequent?

Boring as fuck.

This gal, let’s just call her Molly…I just got sick of having the same conversation over and over again. So I asked what I was genuinely interested in. I admit, what I hoped for was a human moment and it ironically left me feeling so alienated.

Second theory, here are the questions in your 30s:
1. What’s your side hustle?
2. What are you investing in?
3. XYZ question about how are you on the up and up.

Boring as fuck.

And notice how my question didn’t make both lists.

I think there’s this super saturation of “this is what this says about me” syndrome, good and bad. We try to hide the things that make us a vagabond and throw up that dandy positive front.

Maybe it is socially uncouth to ask what’s your passion or if you’re happy. Maybe we should love the answer, whatever it may be. Maybe I’m an alien.

Or, maybe we can just be people for a while?

Best regards,
E