Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Sometimes when we look upon the life we have lived, we may feel as though it hasn’t been interesting. You may think that your life may seem normal and underwhelming but your life is 100% more interesting than you realise.
I used to feel the exact same way about my life too. As I got older I realised that nobody’s life is ever not interesting. No matter how old or young you are, everyone has a story to tell. No two lives are ever the same. People are just walking books, each one full of stories (Yourself included).
In this post I’ll go through a series of events that made me realise how interesting my own life is. I hope that I can also convince you that you are also a lot more interesting than you realise!
(Please enjoy the random photos I added that are totally unrelated to this post)
Moving to university
The first time I realised how interesting and unique everybody’s lives were was when I first arrived at university. Throughout my first year I have met some of the most incredible people. All of which had very interesting lives (even though they didn’t necessarily think so). I met people from abroad who lived lives that were a total contrast from my own. I met people with a multitude of different interest and hobbies. And I met people with different views and beliefs. The point is that there was just a bunch of different people who were all interesting in their own ways.
I also realised that a lot of the people I met took an interest into my own life. I realised that I had an interesting life too. I’d done things that others had not and had been given opportunities that I previously took for granted.
Talking to Strangers
first example
Throughout my year at Uni, I also encountered many strangers off campus. Whilst speaking to random people scares the life out of me (I literally need to prepare a whole script prior to speaking to someone) I really enjoyed these little conversations (despite the whole stranger danger thing).
The first encounter I had with a stranger, was a woman who was asking for bus times. My first reaction was me praying that she wasn’t actually speaking to me. My second reaction was me trying to be a decent human being and actually helping her. After I had helped her find her bus, we began talking. I wish I had warned her before hand that I suck at small talk, but she probably realised anyway. She began asking me about my course and stuff, but that doesn’t really matter, so I’m going to skip to the things I learnt about her.
She was in the city to go sailing! Okay, well I guess it wasn’t a lot of information (Sorry if you were expecting a whole list). I mainly forgot a large chunk of our conversation because 1) it was some time ago (it was mainly focused on sailing) and 2) the whole time I was wondering when her bus would come so the conversation would end. I know, I know… very evil of me. Anyway, I had never met anyone who went sailing before and so I found her to be really intriguing. She was also really confident and chill which I admired about her. This is what I mean by you are much more interesting than you realise. I wondered if she realised how cool her sailing was and how much of an impact that small conversation had.
last example (My social battery never recovered)
Later that same year, I met a woman on the train. This conversation was a lot more tortuous seeing as I was literally trapped on the train and had to converse, even though I initiated the conversation (I know right, the hypocrisy). I’m just kidding (not about the hypocrisy but about it being tortuous). This was one of my favourite interactions with a stranger that I have ever had.
We started off with small talk. Unfortunately, I hadn’t gotten any better at it since my last interaction with a stranger, but I think I deserve an A for effort. The best way I can describe the feeling that small talk invokes in me is total fear. Sometimes when doing small talk I question myself as if I am unsure of the literal facts in my life. I could be asked what my name is and totally screw up and end up naming a cartoon character. Small talk is just a no from me. I prefer the deep types of conversations (which we began speaking about later on throughout the train ride).
We exchanged small pieces of our life until we had essentially painted a picture of each others lives. And I came to the conclusion that this lady was one of the most interesting people I had ever met. I wish this meant something but I have a limit to the amount of people that I interact with in a year. It’s like a social diet. Just kidding! Or am I? No, I’m definitely kidding.
I’m sorry I had to add a random subheading here for a good seo score 🙂
Anyway that’s besides the point, She began telling me about her childhood and the steep contrast between back then and now. She told me about her life in Nigeria, all of her old previous jobs and of her children. We shared many common interests like reading and hiking too. But, my favourite part of the conversation was her giving me genuine life advice.
Unfortunately, I have the memory of a goldfish and so I don’t remember what exactly she said. BUT, it was along the lines of life is hard, stop complaining! Joking! Although the previous piece of life advice is extremely profound, her real advice was along the lines of ‘life is full of ups and downs and there is no single path that you have to stick with and follow’. It was the perfect piece of advice for me at that moment in time as I was struggling with my course and feeling stressed about my future career.
Also, I’d like to add that I was able to maintain a conversation with a stranger for 20 WHOLE MINUTES. This was a new personal achievement unlocked. When she was telling me about her life story, I remember thinking how big life truly is and how much things we go through. It’s just proof that people are way more interesting than they realise.
When we look at the people around us everyday, whether its people you know or complete strangers, it’s easy to forget how vast and interesting everybody’s life is. And yours is no exception!
My job interview:
A few months ago I went for a job interview. It was with 60 other people and the first task was an ice breaker to get to know each other. FYI my social battery never recovered after this. The task was a ‘get to know each other bingo’, essentially we had to go around asking each other if they ticked any of the facts in the boxes. Besides the fact that I was literally sweating, trying to mentally prepare myself to fake a whole tonne of confidence, I did a pretty good job at speaking to all the different people there.
I met twins, Uni-students, Book lovers (people who love books, not books in love), animal enthusiasts, athletes and so many more types of people. Everyone was so interesting. But the one thing I noticed was that when I showed my interest, they played themselves down, not realising how interesting they really were. I saw the same thing in myself. When people told me that they found certain hobbies of mine interesting I began thinking to myself ‘It’s really not that interesting or cool’.
But in reality everyone is interesting in their own way. When we think of interesting people, we may think of people who are super smart and talented and famous. But in reality everyone is equally as interesting. Also, I’ve just realised I’ve used the word interesting so much in this post. I literally cannot think of any synonyms.
What seems normal to you could be extremely fascinating to someone else. And, yes I searched for the synonyms of interesting. Your life may not be extravagent in terms of societal norms but I bet it has been filled with so much adventure. So many stories. So much change and beauty.
I wanted to end this blog by saying that you truly are an interesting person (All the synonyms sounded too weird for this sentence e.g. spellbinding, captivating, absorbing etc).
I hope that you enjoyed this weeks blog post. For more of my posts please click here.