Attempts at Small Talk

As promised in the last entry, I’m now bringing you the full details on my latest attempts at learning the strange foreign language known as small talk. Now, I figured the perfect opportunity to begin this journey would be provided at the dawn of my classes today which, as usual, started with “Introduction to Computers in Business.” Which, by the way, is boorishly silly, but that’s another entry.

So, anyway, upon entering the room I trotted over to my computer station as usual and plopped down between two of my classmates. Now, as has been covered, I’m quite horrid with small talk, and, thus, was immediately left with a nagging feeling of not having the slightest idea as to what to say. Of course, apparently, I wasn’t the only one suffering from the dilemma as my fellow classmates seemed to be lacking in things to say as well. Or, perhaps, they just didn’t want to be bothered with small talk with a strange boy. Hmm. There’s a thought. But, yes, anyway, I’m losing track on my little story.

So, despite my general ignorance towards the nature of small talk, as we all know, I am quite brilliant, and, thus, devised something rather ingenious to start the conversation. Yes, recalling that an online assignment had been given during the last class, I keenly decided that a brilliant icebreaker would be to ask when the assignment was due. Despite, of course, already knowing exactly when the assignment was due, that is, Thursday at 2:00.

Me: “So, when is that homework assignment due?"

Classmate: “Thursday at 2:00."

Me: “Oh, ok. Yeah, I just forgot to write it down."

<span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bi

di-font-family: ‘Times New Roman'”>And now the ice was broken. Which, although seemingly a step in the right direction, apparently I didn’t carve a big enough hole for the conversation to start flowing, as I immediately found myself surrounded in silence again. This small talk stuff may just be harder than I thought . . .

Me: “So, what do you think of this teacher?"

Classmate: “Oh, I kinda like her."

Me: "Oh."

<span style="FONT-SIZE: 10p

t; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-font-family: ‘Times New Roman'”>Classmate: “So, do you like her or what?"

Me: “I think she’s awful."

And the classmate stopped talking with me again. Which essentially put a rather quick end to today’s attempt at small talk, as I’ll be damned if I’m breaking ice more than twice in a 5 minute span. So, in short, my first attempt at small talk was a complete, unabashed, failure.

<span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US

; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-font-family: ‘Times New Roman'”>Maybe tomorrow I’ll ask what’s up . . .