#56: I Fear Awkward Silences

When I was younger, my older brother used to tell me, "Thinh, you seem to always talk for the sake of talking!"  And I used to brush it off because I figured that he was so introverted that it could've easily appeared to him that I was always talking. 

Well fast forward to this year, and I've come to realize that I do talk when I shouldn't because I do have a fear of silence, especially awkward silences, and that when that realization takes place, for some reason, I make it even more awkward with my awkward outbursts to kill the silence.  You know what I mean?

I mean, here are some examples:

Scene 1:

Tawn: Hi my name is Tawn.

1: Hi my name is Shawn.

Tawn: So, what do you do?

Shawn: Oh, I do this and that.

Tawn: Cool...um...
Tawn: Cool... so...yea, our names rhymes!  Have you ever thought about the other names that rhymes too, like John and Dawn...

Awkward laugh...

Scene 2:

Person 1: ...yea, and then I worked here for a while, and that's how I got started in the business.

Tawn: Oh, that's nice. Very unique. [silence] Um...so I know you mentioned you did some programming.

Person 1: Yea, I used to.

Tawn: Neat....um....when I was in high school I learned some C++ and I can make a dot move across the page [awkward laugh], that's about it. Yea, I cheated in C++, well, everyone did, we all copied from this smart kid. [awkward..] But yea, I took my Advanced Placement test on it, and I did pretty well for not knowing a lot. I almost passed. 

Person 1: [looks at me like wtf]

I should've just shutup.

Scene 3:

Person 1: Yes, ma'am, I understand your concern.

Tawn: You should understand my concern, I paid you for this stuff, and I expect it to be changed!!

Person 2: Ma'am, we just got it fixed for you.

Tawn: Oh...ok, thanks. [Now I feel bad for being rude]

Tawn: [But since I was already rude...], well, I appreciate it. [this was suppose to be my cue to leave]. 

Person 2: No problem.

Tawn: Um...but I still think it's WACK!

You get the picture... bah.