“Random Thoughts” by Nhat Minh Le

people that I don’t really know. As a result of not talking as much, I feel like I’ve been given a lot of weird looks because of this. I get that I don’t talk much but is it really necessary to look at me that way? And because I don’t say much, it is more likely for people to assume things about me rather than asking me. Or I often get pushed around because I don’t say anything, so my feelings apparently don’t matter. The majority of the time, I feel like whenever I work with people that I don’t really know or sit around them, I’m just bothering them. I don’t like bothering people. When I am with people I feel comfortable with, I’m a lot more open, but I often feel like I’m either saying too much or that they don’t want to hear what I have to say. I tend to overthink things a lot, and the majority of the time I space out because I’m so lost in my thoughts. Whenever I look around and see people socializing with almost everyone without struggling, I always question why I can’t do that and if I’m the problem. The questions I’m asked from a lot of those people are questions like, “Why don’t you talk?” or “This person never talks, I wonder why?” Questions like that have always rubbed me the wrong way and don’t exactly come off as genuinely being curious and not rude. I feel like as a society, we shouldn’t put too much pressure on each other and put each other down for not being the same. At the end of the day, I wrote this because I wanted to show my perspective on this topic, and I also wanted people who feel how I feel to know that they aren’t alone. I don’t want pity from any of this, but I just wanted to get my story out there. 51