I'm a smart person. I read, I study, I comprehend. But certain types of math can send me to the funny farm. I tried trigonometry in high school. I needed a therapist after a week. My brain hates math. It is what it is. I give up trying.
Louder!
Meme Reaction GIF by reactionseditorGiphy"I can't comprehend why any company would think I'm more likely to buy their product if they make their commercial 20db louder than all other commercials. Instant boycott."
The Scale
"The sheer size and scale of the universe. Like the fact that you can fit all the planets of the Solar System between the Earth and the Moon. Now realise how far apart all the planets are in the Solar System. This is practically next door compared to the distance between our Sun and the nearest star."
"There are billions of stars in our Milky Way (with the majority having planets of their own). The sheer scale of the vast emptiness involved means that even when our galaxy merges with the Andromeda galaxy in 4.5 billion years' time, there will be very, very few actual collisions between stars."
"Then there is the void between galaxies, and that it takes billions of years for light, at its speed (massless, and the fastest speed possible), to travel between galaxies, speaks of the sheer emptiness and distance in that void. I can't quite fathom it."
The Before...
"What was there before the universe, what was there before that, and that and that and (you get the idea)."
"The problem is we are using English words that have implied meanings that are familiar to humans on everyday experience to describe events that are outside everyday experience."
"Before" implies that time exists on both sides of an event, but that is not true when we are talking about the universe. Like how there are no positive numbers less than 0, there are no times before the beginning of the universe."
In the Words...
"Language, the fact that we all collectively decided separately and divertingly that certain sounds have meanings and that other sound mixed with those can change the meaning."
"Thanks for all of the upvotes and the award :3."
"Adding onto what I said, sounds are just vibrations in the air that out brains interpret into the sensation of hearing. Really we're vibrating the air at each-other and those air vibrations to your brain contain meaning. When you think about it like this language is not too dissimilar to the internet in a way. Makes you realize how crazy and unique of a skill language really is, with-ought it we wouldn't have a civilization."
"Another interesting thing related to this is when people call your name. Even if your in a crowded area with hundreds of people talking around you and you think your tuning them out if you hear your name you immediately notice, Some part of your brain must be constantly listening."
"Here are some other things my mind can't quite grasp:
- Computers, the fact that my phone is performing countless mathematical operations constantly.
- the plank length, if I understand it right it's the smallest distance anything can move, like a pixel of space.
- the human body and animals in general, were a collection of (large number but idk how large) cells all working together in various systems some how sustaining a brain that is able to be conscious, it's a miracle animals work at all let alone what they're capable of.
- why my ankles crack when I walk.
- what the future will be like, the world is changing so fast it's likely the future will be nothing like we think and it's coming." - Flaer15
I'm Empty
Fun Floating GIF by Tomas BrunsdonGiphy"My little brain can't comprehend the vast emptiness of space and the fact it supposedly just stretches on forever and never has an end. Kind of wild when you try imagine it."
Like any other muscle or organ in the body, we have to listen when pain is inflicted. We have to recognize discomfort and deal. Why don't we allow the same respect to our brain? It will tell us when enough is enough.
Simplicity...
Work Working GIFGiphy"How a simple calculator works. I can do math. I'm actually very good at it. How does a little plastic box do it though? Always boggled my mind."
Dammit!
"Dates. I am considered a historian by my family due to my knowledge on most world history, but God dang dates... I could be talking about WWII and say it happened the same date as WWI."
Billions of People
"That all the others persons I talk to or see, have their own thoughts, own inner dialogue and own life. For gaming analogy sometimes I just feel like others are NPC and I just can't comprehend that there are more than 7 billions person just like me."
"Sonder...
The profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passed in the street, has a life as complex as one's own, which they are constantly living despite one's personal lack of awareness of it."
Now That's Too Much!
"Quantum physics."
"I have a PhD in astronomy and MSc in Physics, and had to take ~2 years worth of quantum mechanics courses. It's one of those things where you can take solace that even with all that education on it all I can say is no one else really understands it either."
And the Dark?
"Light isn't affected by time. So... other things could just exist outside of time? Like, if you were a photon that traveled at light speed for a million years and then hit an alien's third butt, you'd experience it as instantly being a million light years away."
- Delica
"A photon moves at the speed of light through space, but is standing still in time."
"A person at rest moves at the speed of light through time, but is standing still in space. When you accelerate through space, you're simultaneously decelerating through time. That's why observers will see your clock slow down when you begin accelerating at relativistic speeds. It's referred to as time and space dilation. Makes more sense once you realize that."
The Process...
"There are people who don't have an internal dialogue with themselves. So, they never question if they are right or wrong. They never wonder if they are treating someone fairly, or if they are nice or mean."
"They can change their minds with no information, but it doesn't involve the process most of us go through when confronted with an opinion, or new data. It's not common, but it's not entirely rare. When I learned about this, I just couldn't understand how it was even possible."
The End
Season 2 Episode 10 GIF by The SimpsonsGiphy"Death, obviously I understand why people die and all that but just thinking what happens afterwards. What's it like for the said person that died, is it just blackness? Is it like they're dreaming??? Reincarnation?? This probably sounds very stupid but I don't care 🤦🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️"
There is so much to learn, and even more that we'll never know. And that's ok. When the brain is full, it's full. Seems like just a part of life. The mysteries will sometimes stay illusive.
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Car Basics....
Work Reaction GIF by EnBWGiphyChanging the oil on a car. Changing a tire. Most of your basic car maintenance stuff that once learned will save you some money, and that you can fix in less time than it'd take to bring your car to a mechanic.
Blade
Knife sharpening, it'll stop you from cutting yourself to the bone by stopping your knife from slipping. Then use the other half of the hour to learn proper knife skills.
It's really amazing how much safer a sharp knife is. It "bites" whatever you're cutting immediately and stays on course almost like it has a mind of its own. As long as your fingers aren't in its path when you begin the slice, you're basically more likely to die of a brain aneurysm than cut yourself.
Picker
Lockpicking simple 3 pin locks.
Yes. It's freaking hilarious that people on here can't figure this out on their own.
Think about leaving your bike out with a lock on it vs without. Much more likely to come back to no bike if you don't put a lock.
The Rescue
cat save GIFGiphyCPR, easy to learn and you could save a life someday ! (just don't do it like Michael and Dwight please).
Man Down
I learnt how to fall in my first judo class. It is really a life saver. My teacher grandpa was a judo 8-dan master, and while he was an 87 year old dude, he fell during a walk. I know it won't be a big deal to you, but at that age, falling is a real threat. He managed to do a Zempo Kaiten Ukemi, which is kind of landing on your shoulder first and rolling through your back and getting up striking the floor to use momentum to stand up, its purpose its to soften and dissipate the fall damage. He got up like nothing happened, but all the bystanders were losing it to an old man doing a front roll in the street. He was unharmed thanks to judo. Learning how to fall can save your life.
by the book....
Read the Boy Scout handbook.
It includes a humongous amount of incredibly useful information, including (but not limited to):
- Changing a car tire (depending on the edition)
- Useful knots such as the Bowline and Tautline Hitch
- How to sharpen a knife
- How to properly use the toilet when you're outdoors
- First-aid and triage
- How to tie a necktie
- How to set up and take down a tent, along with (most importantly!) where to set it up. It's ridiculous how many times I've been the only person on a campout whose tent wasn't flooded because I paid attention to this section.
- How to properly clean your dishes when you're outdoors so that you don't get dysentery.
- How to navigate using a map, compass, landmarks, and the stars
- How to stay safe when hiking
- Several different ways to start a fire
- How to repair gear
- How to detect, prepare for, and survive inclement weather
- How to identify various dangerous plants
- Etc. Etc. ad infinitum. The-Daleks
Keyboard Clips
Some keyboard shortcuts never hurt. Here's the ones I use the most
CTRL + W (Google chrome) = Immediately closes your current tab
CTRL + BACKSPACE = Deletes the last whole word rather than deleting one letter at a time
Click on a hyperlink with the mouse wheel button = Opens the link in another tab
CTRL + SHFT + ESC = Opens up task manager without having to go through the CTRL + ALT + DEL menu
K (YouTube) = pauses YouTube videos
, and . (YouTube) = cycles through frames of a YouTube video when paused
CTRL + N (Google Chrome) = Opens up a new tab immediately
CTRL + SHIFT + N (Google Chrome) = Opens up an incognito tab instantly.
Tom Hanks Reaction GIFGrandma Knows
The basics of crochet/knitting. It's quite handy if you want to something original. In the end, the basics are quite simple. With those basics you can make anything. Pillows, stuffed animals/dolls, clothes, wash cloths, pot holders, gloves, hats, scarfs, and more. It can be as quick or slow as you like and as easy or challenging as you like.
Plus it's very mindful, kind if like meditation, and really calming and rewarding as you see your work grow and take form.
Crafts...
Sewing. Just learning how to straight stitch, whipstitch and ladderstitch can save A LOT of clothing, furniture, toys, etc and it's so easy that you likely will never forget how to do it.
Basics...
Basic excel or google sheets - it's shocking how many people with office jobs can't use this critical tool.
Or a copier. Especially if its jammed. Most modern copiers have screens that will tell you where the jam is and how to fix it step by step. Some won't go to the next step unless you for sure fixed what needed to be fixed.
just do it spikes GIF by NikeCoding
Regular expressions are a neat skill and they come in handy if you work with computers, especially if you're a programmer or just work with a lot of text. While there are many programmers, not all of them learn it, and they should. Often programmers who don't know it take time writing needless code that can replace with much shorter code.
To Cut An Onion
How to cut an onion all fancy like, and pretty much a lot of knife technique. Takes practice after the initial 'learning' but they're not terribly tricky to remember.
I've been working on this one. Doing it right is taking me much longer than it did doing it wrong! :)
But I figure that it's like learning to type. At first it takes longer to do it the correct way. But once you get it down, you can go SO much faster than you ever could pecking it out with your pointer fingers. 2 months in and I'm still waiting to get faster with the onion.... but I'm sure it will happen. :) (I only chop an onion like once a week).
Cubed
rubiks cube what GIF by DiggGiphyYou can learn to solve a Rubik's cube in an hour, or maybe two; it's just a matter of memorizing a few short series of turns and when to apply them. The rest is just training your muscle memory.
Save A Life
How bout the Heimlich Maneuver? When you're choking bc of food everybody just hits your back, which may or not help or in some cases worsen things, but the Heimlich Maneuver just gets it done perfectly.
Self taught
Self taught myself how to use editing programs like filmora and Adobe. I'm no where near an expert at them (not dissing on people with the trust skills gained from school or using them on a professional level) but it does allow me to make videos for teaching as well as worksheets for the class.
The Good Hole
I teach my students how to cut a hole in a standard piece of paper big enough to walk through. Not very useful, but my students end betting students outside my class that they can walk through a hole in paper. Easier to share a link then describe without photos, but here ya go!
https://allfortheboys.com/quick-trick-walk-through-a-sheet-of-paper/
It's magic...
notorious ryan guzman GIF by The Paley Center for MediaGiphySimple magic tricks. There are a bunch you can learn that shouldn't take more than 5-10 minutes each.
Use them to make friends and meet people. CPR and fire-making are more important, because they could save you or someone else in an emergency... But you will use magic far more often in every day life.
In the Oven...
Cooking one home cooked meal. I had no idea how easy some meals are to cook, until my dad started to teach me. We prepared a meatloaf AND potatoes in 10 minutes when my dad was on a 15 minute break from work (he works from home). All I had to do after was just put it in the oven.
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I went dressed in my casual speakeasy attire topped with a boater hat and a bow tie around my neck that I proudly tied myself.
No other fellas I spotted at the party sported a clip-on, not that anyone would razz me for wearing one if I did.
Most party guests were either too busy doing the Charleston in front of the orchestra or on a toot and getting zozzled from their glasses of giggle water by noon.
Anyway, the event was the bee's knees, and knowing that I had taken the time to learn how to tie on a bow tie made me feel like the cat's whiskers and well-suited for the convivial affair.
In order for us to prevent lamenting, "coulda, shoulda, woulda," Redditor askgamblers-official suggested that there is no time like the present to educate ourselves about anything useful that could come in handy someday.
The Original Poster (OP) asked:
"What can we learn/know right now in 10 minutes that will be useful for the rest of our life?"Remember, you can learn how to do anything, thanks to the magic of YouTube.
For Survival
"If you ever fall through the ice and are trapped underwater, aim for a dark spot. A hole in the ice will look dark."
"And if someone tries to abduct you fight like hell even if they have weapon. Your situation will not improve if they get you to a more private location."
For Saving A Life
"How to spot someone choking and how to help them."
"Takes 10 minutes to learn and could save a life."
"If you yourself are choking, a lot of people have heard the use a chair to heimlich yourself trick. To me the better and easier method is to get into a position on the ground face down arms up like your going to do a push-up. Then drop yourself to the ground to force pressure through the diaphragm."
"And if YOU are choking at a restaurant, don't run into the restroom out of embarrassment where you might die alone and unseen."
For Rescuing
"Also, how to spot someone legit drowning. It looks nothing like the movies. Head will be barely above water, with mouth bobbing slightly in and out of the water, opening and closing like a fish would. Probably won't see their hands (because they'll be moving wildly underwater), they won't be making much sound, if at all, they'll have glassy eyes with a faraway stare."
"All this adds up to a very non-Hollywood look that we're all used to. This person looks 'calm' in the water because their amygdala has taken over and they are on auto-pilot to simply stay alive. This is one of the reasons why they don't speak...speech isn't important at this point, so their brain shuts it down."
"This is also why it's extremely dangerous to personally engage a drowning person. They will drown you to save themselves and probably have no recollection of doing it. Always use a long pole, rope, flotation device, or something else onto which they can grab."
– pgymjp
For Calculating
"Percentage is interchangable. 8% of 25 is hard to do in your head but 25% of 8 is easy, and they both equal the same. works every time."
"If you think of 8% as a fraction (8/100) the reason for this is more clear. (8/100)x25 = (8x25)/100 = 8x(25/100)"
For Further Explanation
"Think of percentages in a different way. 8% is just 8/100. So 8% of 25 is 8/100 × 25. Multiplication and division are commutative, which is a fancy way of saying you can swap the order freely. So you can do 8×25/100 or 8/100×25 and it'll come out to the same thing."
– Lost-Tea
Head Explode GIF by memecandyGiphyFor Flexibility
"How to properly stretch your hands and forearms. Stretch arms straight out forward, point fingers up, then without moving arms ball a fist downward. Repeat as fast as possible.. taught indirectly from Bruce Lee"
For Silencing
"If you're somewhere quiet and your stomach is growling loudly DON'T tense up your tummy muscles, push your stomach out instead and it will make the growl quieter."
For Organizing
"How to use the sort and filter functions on Excel. These functions can help prevent a lot of future pain."
For Expectations
"Grasp the idea that everyone you meet knows something you do not."
"A wise man and a fool have a long conversation. The fool has the most to learn, but the wise man learns the most. (Sorry for not being gender neutral.)"
For Cleaning Bodily Fluids
"It's easier to clean up cum with cold water than with hot water."
"Same goes for blood on clothes or other material!"
"Meant to help out the ladies with this one... not someone plotting their next murder..."
For Picking Locks
"How to bypass a lock. It's actually very easy to get through most locked doors. Any kind of card (license, credit card, whatever) can open a regular latch. If the door opens away from you just slide it in between the door jam and door handle. The card will slide in between the mechanism and open it. If the door opens towards you it doesn't always work but you can slide the card in and down at an angle to get behind the latch and open it that way."
"Most pad locks take less than 10 seconds to get into as well but I don't know how to describe the technique with words."
– Ghriszly
For Life
"I mean, they're skills and not really wisdom but..."
"Warning signs of a stroke."
"How to use a fire extinguisher."
"Rolling your clothes after folding gives you more room in a drawer/suitcase. It's life changing."
"Righty tighty, lefty loosey."
"How to change a tire, check your oil and jump a car."
"Also changing headlights without using your fingers because the oils will damage the bulbs."
"How to start a campfire and put it out."
"The Heimlich maneuver."
"How to tie a knot more than one way."
"How to sew a basic stitch."
"The basics of emergency first aid."
"How to spot a rip tide and how to escape."
"How to shut off and turn on a circuit breaker and where they're located."
"What to do in an earthquake, tornado, tsunami and hurricane."
For CPR
"Push hard, push fast."
"Ribs WILL break if you're doing it properly on an adult (it is the most bizarre creepy thing). Kids are very bendy and you may not get that sensation if you need to do CPR on them)"
"If you need to do CPR, the person you are doing it to is dead. You can't make them more dead. You might be able to bring them back to life if you try. Do not feel bad if you can't. If you fail, you didn't kill them. They were already dead."
"If you don't have a one way valve to administer rescue breaths, STILL GIVE CHEST COMPRESSIONS. Chest compressions alone are better than nothing- you're still pumping oxygen to the areas that need it and it will suffice until EMS/help arrives."
"Giving CPR is stressful as hell. If you need to do CPR, it's likely going to be on someone you know. Sometimes gallows humour is necessary for your brain not to freak out. Chest compressions to 'Another One Bites The Dust' is the right rhythm and might get you smirking long enough to make you smirk/laugh (to yourself!) to take your mind off of what's actually happening."
"Even if a cardiac arrest happens IN hospital, their odds of survival are only about 10%- so much less so if it's outside a hospital. I say this not to make you think 'why bother' but so you know that if you are unable to resuscitate the person, it's OK and was nothing you did wrong- by even trying CPR, you gave them their best chance at life."
With the indefinite global health crisis still limiting physical contact, many of us have also mastered utilizing Zoom to connect with friends and family, even though our clumsy search for that elusive logout button at the end of a call dictates otherwise.
The point is, we have all to an extent become technical wizards.
But when it comes down to basic computer skills, even the most proficient user can be oblivious.
Redditor sujhkonen wanted to know:
"What is a computer skill everyone should know/learn?"
Cleaning
"How to clean their computers, software and hardware. It's amazing how much some of the machines out there are struggling due to dust and unused software."
"I just dusted my pc for the first time in over a year. Now it doesn't sound like a jet when I play Skyrim."
Tab Button
"Some years ago, I was watching my mother input values into a web form."
"For each field, she went and moved her mouse over the new field she wanted to add info to and then click on it. After a few times of observing this behavior, I asked her if she knew that tabbing would move to the next field."
"She didn't."
"So tabbing."
– demoran
Advance Searches
"How to advanced search and reverse image search on google."
"Advanced search example: put quotes around your phrase. It gives you results of the exact phrase rather than 100,000 irrelevant 'related searches.'"
– mp2900
Hitting CTRL F
"I was surprised to learn that there were people who didn't know ctrl f (or cmd f for mac users) was a thing. Extremely useful for finding a particular word/phrase in a large wall of text."
"I once had a coworker who didn't know this and was surprised on how I could complete certain excel lists so quickly or find information in them. She always zoomed them up to 300% and then read each column one by one..."
The Time Waster
"I was once given an excel sheet someone had made where they didn't know that pressing alt+enter would create a line break within a cell. This dude had held down the f'king space bar until the cursor moved onto the next line in each cell for a document with a couple thousand entries. Any time you viewed the sheet on a monitor with a different resolution or zoomed in/out everything would go out of alignment. I almost had a heart attack thinking about the astronomical amount of time it took to do that the wrong way."
– Xeibra
Failure To Excel
"After being trained in my current job (billing clerk) we had someone leave, and she'd been working there longer than I've been alive I think. One of our accounts that she billed to had us keeping excel sheets tracking PO numbers and how much money was left on them. The sheet had lines where you would put in the invoice number, the order number, and how much it was. Formula told you how much was then left on the PO. Super simple. I took over her responsibilities when she left. I discovered soon after that all the sheets on it were out of date by a few months so the POs were reflecting the wrong amounts. Thought she just stopped caring since she was leaving. Nope. I discovered in one of the drawers of files that she had been printing out physical copies of the sheets and writing the information in by hand. And would go and copy everything back onto the excel sheet whenever the account would ask how they were going.... Why would someone make twice the work for themself???"
– ArdentC
Incognito Broswer
"How to use incognito browser. Not only for porn, but to log into an account on a computer that isn't yours so the information isn't saved."
"Adding to that, if the computer is yours and you are inviting guests who need your computer often, you can set up a guest account for them. I personally use it for preserving my desktop."
"I personally use it to preserve my dignity."
Security
"Recognizing phishing attempts. Hell, recognizing any sort of incoming scam."
"I was pretty proud, and surprised, a few months ago."
"I got an email from a pretty legit looking address, but something about it felt fishy, so I forwarded it to our phishing department. Everything looked good, but the person it was from had literally never asked me to click on a link before, so it got my spidey senses going. The filter always catches that stuff, so I was really surprised that something like that got through, so I fully expected them to tell me it was legit."
"They replied back almost instantly that it was a test, they'd sent that email to around half of our 50,000 employees (spoofing the from to be a person in your reporting structure, and the email address was our company name with a hyphen and a word related to our field.), and I was one of only 50 or so that actually forwarded it properly. Over 2000 people clicked on the link, and another few hundred put their email and password in when prompted."
"Needless to say, we've had a lot of training on picking out phishing attempts since... (though it likely won't do any good)."
Getting Snippy
"Windows key + shift + s to create a new snip. Very handy to share just a bit of your screen and quicker than screenshots."
Such a useful shortcut! Cmnd-shift-4 for Mac!"
Research
"How to google the solutions to your basic computer problems. I'm the youngest person in my office by about 10 years, and everyone comes to me for IT advice. But all the expertise I have is knowing how to google the solution, because I don't know sh*t about computers."
Listening To (Or Reading) Your Computer
"To actually read what the computer is 'saying' to you instead of clicking on OK or Cancel right away without thinking."
"It's an advice that my step father gave me when I was young and it helped me a lot over the years."
– Eaglooo
"The first bit of advice I can remember my father giving me is 'Don't keep clicking expecting that to make anything happen faster. Click once, and wait.'"
"They replied back almost instantly that it was a test, they'd sent that email to around half of our 50,000 employees (spoofing the from to be a person in your reporting structure, and the email address was our company name with a hyphen and a word related to our field.), and I was one of only 50 or so that actually forwarded it properly. Over 2000 people clicked on the link, and another few hundred put their email and password in when prompted."
"Needless to say, we've had a lot of training on picking out phishing attempts since... (though it likely won't do any good)."
How To Type In A Website
"Typing in a website. I'm not kidding."
"I work IT for a healthcare org who contracts us as IT for hospitals throughout the US. There is an uncomfortably large amount of healthcare workers and doctors who can't comprehend what 'go to the internet and type in ________.com' means."
"Is that the E?"
"Where do I type it? The box at the top?"
"What do I do after I type it in? Hit enter?"
"Your new password is _______"
"I type that in the username section right?"
Troubleshooting
"How to troubleshoot problems without bothering other people first. You have the largest collection of curated knowledge in your pocket or at your fingertips, maybe it can help you solve your problem."
Don't Look At The Keyboard While Typing
"Typing without seeing the keyboard. You don't need to be fast, just type consistently without seeing screen and keyboard back and forth. Just focus on what are you typing on the screen."
For YouTube
"You can click anywhere on a youtube video to pause it."
"Or 'K'. Then 'J' to skip back 10 seconds, 'L' to skip forwards 10 seconds. Left and right arrows are skip back/forwards 5 seconds and comma ',' and period '.' skip backwards/forwards a single frame."
Look Away
the rock wrestling GIF by WWEGiphyI found out that holding extended eye contact is pretty much universally unappreciated. I always thought that giving full attention was respectful, but recently was told it comes off as the opposite. I've had to practice looking away at appropriate times. It's frustrating because I watch people for hyper-detailed body language, but conversations go better when I look away briefly for their comfort.
So Many ???????
For the longest time I never realized that when someone asks you a bunch of questions it's because they're trying to make conversation with you. I always just answered as briefly as possible like if it was a q&a or something. It kind of confused me that every new person I met was so interested in my life that they all wanted to know where I was from and what my favorite color of seven was. Now I realize how much of an ahole I actually came off as and why not many people wanted to talk to me.
Body Language
Most recently, I realized that when I look down and hunch my shoulders inward, people think I don't want to be approached. Apparently it's not enough to have your body faced towards people, you also have to hold it a certain way or they think you don't want to talk to them.
I've had people comment on my body language, thinking I don't want to speak to them, when it's typically me just existing. If I don't want to talk someone I usually just respond with "yeah/no/haha" or something. I rarely ever use my body to express something. Nobody ever bothered explaining that to me!
Weather Chat
windy bill murray GIFGiphyPeople talk about the weather a lot with strangers because everyone has it in common, and lots of people have opinions on it and from there it's easy to switch the conversation to something else so the conversation doesn't die.
"Say something. Anything"
I learned a few weeks ago that small talk and the occasional silence are okay and perfectly acceptable. Also, offering my input isn't always appropriate.
Being somewhere without someone talking unnerves me in a way that I don't know if I can ever describe. Like, we could be talking about whatever, sunshine and rainbows or whatever, and we run out of conversation, and they're totally fine with that, meanwhile, I'm about to have an anxiety attack if someone does start talking immediately. It feels like I'm about to be murdered right there and maybe worse.
It happened at a bar a few years ago where everyone had just stopped talking and I was freaking out.
I think the best example is from SpongeBob where he goes to Sandy's house and he starts thinking to himself "I don't need it" over and over again. Just change "I don't need it" to something like "Say something. Anything" and that kinda how I feel. Also, change the person I'm talking with from someone trustworthy and good to a poor Christian Grey and that's how I feel when no one is talking.
How to Talk
Both my parents have disabilities, while I don't.
My childhood and adolescence was weird as I had to unlearn a bunch of behaviors that were "normal" in my family, but which most people don't do.
Nobody in my family hugs, they prefer isolation and go without talking to one another for days, when they do talk it's a lot of "talking at", rather than "talking with".
We rarely left the house, we NEVER had people over.
High school was great for me because suddenly I found out I didn't have to feel lonely and bored all the time: I could have conversations and color and excitement and even just being out and about was so great.
Participation Points
Participating in conversations when introduced to new people. I don't really meet tons of new people, but sometimes a friend of mine will bring me to a place full of some friends I don't know. I was always just trying to be polite and not intrude. also drive-throughs. obviously I knew about them, but God do I hate them.
Until this year i couldn't even speak in a drive-thru. i found its something to do with being unable to see the person I'm talking to, which is probably why i cant call and order food or call a place to verify hours/inventory. good to know others struggle with this, and again used a persona to deal with the uncertainties of meeting new people.
being 21....
GiphyI only learned how to respond to "how are you" when I was 21, and I still feel stressed by it every time to this day.
"big kid"
No so much newly discovered, but as someone who just started a professional "big kid" job, passive aggressiveness and me being expected to do more then asked of me drives me nuts. If I screwed up just tell me I screwed up and I won't do it again. That's how I learn and grow. But subtly hinting at me about something is going to go right over my head. Or instead of coming to me directly about a problem gossiping about me to your co workers. :/ that one sucks.
Also you ask me to do a task I will do said task, I'm not psychic, I can not predict what you need before you need it unless I have been working with you for a long time.
I also don't know how to argue stand up for myself very well. Like if I'm being criticized for something that was actually not my fault I always just nod and take it bc otherwise I feel like I'm just making up excuses.
Okay fine....
real housewives of atlanta ok GIFGiphyI found out that when someone asks you to go do something with them, and you sound hesitant, that when they say "Okay fine, don't come then"... they still want you to go. I thought they changed their mind but apparently it's just something people say when they're emotional.
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