By: RILEY VUOLA
Staff Writer
A common way to start a conversation with someone is to talk about things that have been going on in your life recently. Saying something like “I’m so tired” or “I’m hungry” is something I hear a lot when people are trying to start a conversation. Most of the time the other person will say something along the lines of “Me too, what do you have going on today?” to try and continue the conversation. But other times, people can get competitive and try to make it seem like things are worse for them by saying stuff like “Yeah? Well, I went to bed at 4am last night.” or “Well I didn’t eat at all yesterday and I didn’t have breakfast this morning.”
I’m not sure what these people are trying to achieve other than maybe sympathy, but it just comes across as rude. Even if what they’re saying is true, it makes it seem like you’re not even listening to the other person and that you’re invalidating their feelings. Just because someone doesn’t have it as bad as you, that doesn’t mean that they don’t have struggles of their own.
If you’re reading this and realizing that you may be one of these people, intentionally or not, I really suggest that you try and stop doing this because it can be damaging to people’s state of mind.