i received a compliment from a stranger last week —— a student in a class that im tutoring. it was his first time in my class (there are several alternate time slots managed by different tutors); he found my tutoring style very helpful and kept thanking me for it. i thanked him for his comments and he thanked me back again. ahh, pleasantries.
it made my day! i have been feeling a little under-qualified at times at this job and now there is formal recognition for it!
a good friend once told me that she thinks that i’d be good at teaching..which is also a compliment too and i remember being happy about it. strangely though, the words from the stranger made me happier.
then i did a thought experiment with a complete opposite scenario: what if a stranger hurled insults at me?
i’d probably reminisce about it for a long time, wondering what wrong did i do and how i shouldve behaved myself instead.
but if it came from a good friend…depending on the situation it is most probably a joke(i don’t have many toxic friends who cannot properly communicate their dissatisfaction at me)…so i wouldn’t think much about it.
weird huh? same things coming from different pools of people…garnering different emotional reactions.
especially when faced with criticism from people who “aren’t close” to us, our closer circle of people would say something like: “just ignore them, they don’t know you well so it doesn’t matter what they say.”
but we do care! (or is it just me?) isn’t it interesting that the words from strangers carry more magnitude sometimes?
my hypothesis on why we care is: we subconsciously know that strangers would react according to their impressions of us, like the vibes we give off. and if they respond in a positive way, that means that we are conveying good energy and it makes us feel good about ourselves. the opposite can also happen and that means that we are not presenting ourselves well enough —— so we start to be anxious about it.
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hi it’s me again. im trying to write more … just like what i say every year :)
i noticed a drop in my english proficiency and writing capabilities (fuck Deutsch) so i definitely have more motivation to write!
i don't like kwy 