I am guilty of oversharing personal information. And talking a lot.
I have been told I have no filter. And perhaps this has worsened since I started this blog.
Someone said to me in the office today “how is your stomach?”. “Great.” I replied.
(See, this a normal response.)
Then the no filter part comes STRAIGHT out, without me even thinking.
“But (insert husbands name here ) has REALLY bad farts, so I think something could be going around.”
My colleague then said thank you for sharing, and let me know quietly in the lunchroom that he thinks I am getting more ‘open’.
Not sure if this is good or bad but this could be for a few reasons.
The primary reason I can think of is that I feel I am now in a ‘safety net’ and have been at my job for over 12 months.
This means that now I can let the person I really am out.
Doesn’t it?
Then I thought about all the information everyone at work knows about me and what do I actually know about them?
The person that sits next to me knows ALL about my family, my nieces and nephews, daily adventures of the cat, which hot chick the husband is shooting and what exercise I am doing that day. And what do I know? Not very much. He lives with his girlfriend. Travels a few times a year.
I don’t know about his pets, relationship, (or if he too has an obsession with rounding all his bank accounts up to even numbers).
He likes beer. And football. And running. And bloke things.
Do I only overshare at work? Well, no. Actually, I do this everywhere. I just. can’t. stop. speaking.
I had a think about recent conversations where I have made others cringe in silence.
Last Wednesday night, at running, I suddenly became ill and started to throw up (which is another story for another time).
I proceeded to shout loudly to my husband, across the track, “I am not preggers am I? When did we last have sex?“.
People turned around at me and stared. They seemed a little stunned. I was reminded then of my lack of filter in front of my new running friends by my husband who said that maybe this was not the appropriate setting to be having this conversation.
I digress a little here, but this kind of reminds me of a course I went on at the beginning of the year. We were asked to walk towards someone and stop when we felt we had reached the limit of our own and each others personal space. I ended up embracing this woman who I had just met (who fortunately was an open soul like me and embraced me back).
In the personal space walk I did not reach that barrier of inappropriateness. It is the same with talking, unfortunately.
The poor husband sometime tries to mouth a loud yet silent ‘NO’ to me at dinner parties, but he is never quite fast enough. (I am sorry husband.)
I TRY not talk about farting in front of my boss, but I MAY have let it slip (accidentally) about how I got the chicken pox straight after losing my virginity.
Is this too much?
How can one instigate having a filter when you have been sharing too much for 33 years?
Help!
