Listen more, argue less
No one cares about your opinions that much
In the past few days, I’ve talked to some people. Those persons I have never met before but they somehow said something to me. I do not have the slightest intent to make this post to be inspirational. It just so happened and I decided to write it down.
Hello there.
For privacy reasons, I’ll simply refer they/them as he/him and she/her. I’m not sure what their pronouns are and I don’t think I know them well enough to ask such a question.
The other day when I was at work, I had a chat with a young lad who’s an intern. The person is not Chinese but who born and raised in the same city I’m living in. He has a darker skin tone and I’m not sure where he’s from at first. Because I rarely talk to non-chinese people in real life, I’m curious to ask things. Later, I got my answer to that.
We didn’t have a full conversation and only talked for a bit mostly nonsense. His English is very fluent and understands quite some Cantonese. I couldn’t resist myself from asking what he think of Hong Kong people and his perspective regarding the Protest. “I’m from Hong Kong” that’s what he told me. He’s being very friendly and nice. One thing that I remember is that he said “I’ve been two months here and learnt something new everyday”. The day is also his last day working there. I missed the chance to say something to him. So, I just want to wish him be the person he wanted to be and all the best.
The other person that I met is a young lass. She’s from Italy and is an intern as well. We haven’t actually talked but she awkwardly gave me some “advice”. I was surprised because the day is the very first time we met. I didn’t even know her name yet. I don’t quite remember the actual wordings, it’s something like: “You’re being uptight, talking too fast and you should be more chilled and relaxed”. At the time, I wasn’t paying attention to her and I was like “Good to know”.
A while later, maybe I was worried about being unfriendly and I asked things about her. Again, I’m curious to know why she’d pick Hong Kong for her internship. She told me because she’s interested in Asia and here seem to be more English speaking people. Well, I’d say a nice choice. The day after work when I was on my way back home, I realized what she said to me kind of struck me. I guess she’s probably right. By the way, I don’t mind people being candid.
So, the next person said something that I remember as well. She’s working an overnight shift while I was almost leaving. That was also the first time we met. I asked why she choose working overnight. She simply answered, “It doesn’t matter what (job) you’re doing, as long as you’re happy”. Whoa, tears in my eyes already. But seriously, I like the attitude.
Those are people I met last week. They all said things I already know and I heard about that kind of words many times. Nothing new here but they’re kind of right. That was a very good reminder. They reminded me to take a look at myself, again. I need that. As an old guy, maybe we stop—or refuse—listening to people anymore because we think we’re wiser. Turns out, they might inspire you in some way.
We should listen more, argue less.
This is #Day51 of #100DaysToOffload.