Confessions

I have a confession to make: I am an incredibly selfish person. It manifests itself in all kinds of ways. But there's one thing in particular that I feel should be so easy to fix, and yet it hasn't been.

When people say "Hi, how are you?", I almost answer with just a "good" and no reciprocal question. I first noticed this in middle school, and decided I needed to correct my habit. I thought it would be pretty simple to correct. Just teach myself to ask "And you?" Two little words to show I care. How hard could it be?

Well, seeing as it's been 13 years, I'd say pretty hard. Maybe it's because deep down, I don't feel like that question expresses genuine concern. But I don't think that's all there is to it. For example, the barista at Fireside Cafe recently asked me how I spent my weekend. That's a much more involved question that shows genuine interest, not a status quo question which will be answered the same way 99% of the time (regardless of the truth). (Though I hear in Japan they actually stop and have a conversation when someone asks a similar question.) Anyway...after telling her about my weekend, it wasn't until I was almost back to my desk when I remembered I should've asked her what she did over the weekend.

It's not that I don't care about people. It's just that I'm so selfish that I just get caught up in talking about myself. So I'd like to apologize to anyone I've offended by my behavior...and please know I really am trying to grow.