A Social Butterfly, of Sorts
I swam today and saw someone I talk to on a semi-regular basis in the locker room afterwards. He's a bit older than me, probably in his early seventies, and both he and his wife have had significant health issues in the last year. He may have to have surgery soon (and it's worse if he doesn't), and we chatted for a few minutes about how difficult it can be when you do everything you can to stay healthy and something hits you out of the blue.
I stopped at Jimmy John's on the way home for a soda pop. I do this whenever I swim as a treat to look forward to, and sometimes it's all I think about for the last 10-15 minutes. I usually get comped for my drink because the people there all know me and I always ask how they're doing. One woman moved in with her grandmother after her grandfather died. Her grandmother has early-stage dementia and it wasn't safe to live on her own.
On the way home I realized that, in my own weird way, I'm very social. It's the way an introvert would be social, because it consists of many five-minute interactions, but they're all genuine. I find out all kinds of things about people because I'm willing to listen.
I always thought I was a huge liability socially, due to my introversion, but I'm realizing that I just had to be social in my own way. It's not the way other people do it, but that's okay.
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