So have you ever met somebody and all they do is talk about themselves? It is extremely annoying isn't it? It is so hard for you to even get five words in without them trying to top your story in some way or somehow trying to relate what you said back to a story about themselves. It is a general fact though. Most people like to talk about themselves. I am guilty of this as well. If you get me going on the subject of "Music" or "Schizophrenia" I can talk for hours! (LOL) There is nothing wrong with that though. I used to be the type of person that would talk about my self for hours! However this really got the best of me at one time.
So, one time I started feeling really connected to the people around me because they were just so inquisitive and wanted to know everything about me. I had opened up my entire life story to them and they knew me inside and out. I felt really loved. But there was one thing I realized after a long time of surrounding myself with these people… I knew absolutely NOTHING about them! I talked about myself so much that I never listened to what they had to say. I never knew their view on life (morals, values etc.) It wasn't until later on that I slowly started to realize that they were not really a good group of people. They did a lot of messed up manipulative type stuff to each other, as I would watch on the sidelines. You know, who's sleeping with whose girlfriend or boyfriend, and who's screwing this person over for money, and who's beating up this person for this ridiculous reason. I swear… it was like a zoo! And I was caught right up in it! After a while, I slowly started realizing that I had become one of them! It wasn't until I had a bunch of huge falling outs and damaged relationships that I separated myself from these people. Then deep in solitude, I took a long hard look at myself and suddenly realized that I should stop talking about myself so much when I'm around other people. Instead, I should be more inquisitive and want to learn and soak in as much of my surroundings as I can. That way I can evaluate other people and my surroundings better. I still might be in the heart of chaos but I will definitely know my safe zones and my limits with each new person that I meet and exactly what they are capable of. Life is safer that way.
So in conclusion, I've learned in my most recent years that the less self absorbed I am, and the more I let people talk about themselves, the more I can see how genuine or (excuse my language) full of shit they really are. Listen you will learn more.
