“You talk slow.” My classmate informed me from the back of the school bus. “When…you…talk, it’s…really…slowwww.”
My cheeks heated, and my words stuck in my throat. I didn’t know how to respond to this fast-talking, high-energy class clown. He was popular. I was not. I sunk into my seat, hoping that he’d forget about me for the last 20 minutes of the bus ride.
He didn’t.
Suddenly, he was next to me, teasing me for my slow speech–mimicking me. And I didn’t know what to do. How do you talk back to someone when your every word will be additional ammunition?
The sweet relief of escape at my bus stop…but, this memory sticks tight in my brain.
I’m not a fast person. I’m slow, methodical, over-thinking, and cautious human being. And I still talk slowly. As an adult, this quality seems to be appreciated. For the most part, each word that comes from my mouth is measured before it enters the world.
My counselor (yes, therapy is so good!) at one point said to me, “I admire the way that you keep space for yourself, pausing and really considering your words before setting them before me.” (Okay, so that was my paraphrase)
And that was new to me–being told that it was okay for me to be measured in my interaction with others and how I spoke.
I joke that I’m a turtle. I don’t want to take that comparison too far, but I do want to talk about the turtle mentality.
We all know the story of the turtle and the hare. The hare zips quickly through things while the turtle plods steadily along. And I relate hard to the turtle.
In CrossFit, set me up for a long and endurance-y workout, and I’m your girl. Set a sprint before me…and watch me face plant. I’m not a good sprinter. I’ll try, but somehow it always turns into a slow jog.
And that’s okay. I think it’s important to learn what kind of do-er you are. If you’re a slow and easy-does-it kind of person, then carry on. If you’re fast and zippy, keep going. There’s room for both and some in between.
So even though I’m still bothered by that incident from childhood, I’m a little bit proud of it too. It was a turning point of understanding for me. Sure, I didn’t want to be a “slow talker,” but now I recognize the value of weighing my words before I speak them.
So this has been a bit of a ramble. But I want to know: do you see yourself as a turtle? Or are you more hare? And what can we learn from each other?
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