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Encounters.
This afternoon, I heard someone proudly talking about how they're featured in every chapter of their psychiatrist's upcoming book.
It's a book about living with and recovering from eating disorders.
I'm not sure what she was trying to communicate, or why she wanted to talk about it with a relative stranger in the room. It reminded me a little of a conversation a while back where someone else at the table was trying to impress and shock the group by crowing about how she was in such a bad place in college, she had to take mandatory therapy sessions.
At that dinner, I said, "Who hasn't?"
At the gym today, I didn't ask a thing.
At that dinner, she doubled down on trying to explain her therapy had been mandatory - "Yeah, who hasn't?" I said again, casually, having been there myself and taking a certain sense of pleasure in deflating a moment by reminding someone that while their experiences might not be universal, neither are they unique or unprecedented.
At the gym today, the person was talking about the therapists and doctors she sees on a regular basis, and at multiple points her trainer asked her to slow down because she was talking too fast for him to understand, and I had the wicked thought of asking about a speech therapist, and said nothing, only asking her for the author's name. I didn't find out about the book's subject matter until I got back to my apartment, so to go from hearing someone attempt a flex about simply being in their psychiatrist's upcoming book to a book on eating disorders added the additional dimension to have me wonder about it with a greater level of specificity.
I keep wondering if she was talking like that because she's so proud of her accomplishments, just as I keep wondering why she's announcing that.
It's a book about living with and recovering from eating disorders.
I'm not sure what she was trying to communicate, or why she wanted to talk about it with a relative stranger in the room. It reminded me a little of a conversation a while back where someone else at the table was trying to impress and shock the group by crowing about how she was in such a bad place in college, she had to take mandatory therapy sessions.
At that dinner, I said, "Who hasn't?"
At the gym today, I didn't ask a thing.
At that dinner, she doubled down on trying to explain her therapy had been mandatory - "Yeah, who hasn't?" I said again, casually, having been there myself and taking a certain sense of pleasure in deflating a moment by reminding someone that while their experiences might not be universal, neither are they unique or unprecedented.
At the gym today, the person was talking about the therapists and doctors she sees on a regular basis, and at multiple points her trainer asked her to slow down because she was talking too fast for him to understand, and I had the wicked thought of asking about a speech therapist, and said nothing, only asking her for the author's name. I didn't find out about the book's subject matter until I got back to my apartment, so to go from hearing someone attempt a flex about simply being in their psychiatrist's upcoming book to a book on eating disorders added the additional dimension to have me wonder about it with a greater level of specificity.
I keep wondering if she was talking like that because she's so proud of her accomplishments, just as I keep wondering why she's announcing that.