There is a certain girl who sits next to me in Economics. She wears brand names—Burberry laptop case, Miu Miu shoes, various trendy brands of clothes and jeans. She’s pretty, in that perfectly streaked blonde and sharp featured manner, and seems to have quite a few male friends. The sexual orientation of the friends might be in question, but the fact remains that she has them, even though she has the most annoying whine of a voice and talks about mundane things.

An example of a conversation:

She comes in with an Au Bon Pain cup of soup and squeezes past me to sit down. “Omigosh I was at Au Bon Pain and they were like telling me that like I couldn’t get a cup of hot hot soup and I was like okaaaay… why would I want soup that isn’t hot hot but is just warm? I mean seriously, who wants warm soup?” Pause for the obligatory chuckles and laughs. “But finally I got this girl to like heat my soup up more and now it’s so perfect like I wanted.”

“I totally want some Au Bon Pain soup right now cause it’s so freezing in here,” a male friend says.

“I know that’s why I got it cause like I knew I would be like cold cause it’s always like sooooo cold in here,” she replies and the conversation continues in the same sort of vein. And all this said in her raspy whine.

I wondered why she bothers me, and then I realized the sad fact that I see myself talking like that and obviously I don’t want to be able to see myself doing so.

Lately I’ve been annoyed at people talking on cellphones because the part of the conversation I hear sounds so… repetitive and idiotic. The same platitudes and words of assurance or advice are used over and over. What has happened to the art of conversation? I used to think, when I was younger, that I would magically know what to say, and how to say it once I reached college (mainly based off such television shows as Felicity &c.). This has turned out to be far from true. For me, talking to girls has always been easier. We can rely on the time-tested topics of love lives, shopping, and good ole fashioned catty gossip. But guys?

I’m not one of those people who can stand silences. I enjoy them only when the person I am talking to doesn’t shut up or when it is a truly comfortable silence (which is rarely experienced). This is a problem, I think, because with guys, it appears they need the silences to digest and think things over while girls think things over out loud. Therefore I fear I cover the silences with questions or random thoughts, which doesn’t bode well as it doesn’t allow the guys to digest (?). And I’ve never been able to joke around with the guys, or truly be interested in sports, or just talk to them really.

Life is definitely not like a well-scripted television show.