Last year was kind of annoying, mainly because of the United States election. People have to share their political opinions whether you want to hear them or not and continually bombard you with questions about how you feel about certain topics.
I thought it was a good idea at the time to tell people that I didn’t like either candidate. This was my subtle way of telling people that I’m not discussing the candidates, nor was I going flag myself as being one kind of person over another. It didn’t exactly work.
A couple of days after the election, a group of people started talking about the election outcome. One of the people turned to me and said:
“But you voted Libertarian, didn’t you?”
I stared at her for a moment, speechless. All this time working to not be involved in political discussions and this person had the gall to outright ask me who I voted for.
I finally took a breath and said:
“I don’t talk about who I voted for.”
There was silence.
She clasped her hands and pinched her mouth together. I’d offended her, but I wasn’t going to back down from my position. She walked back to her group without another word.
It was a moment of triumph for me.
It also made me think about how nosy people are. Why people want to know everything about you for no other reason than to satisfy their own curiosity. Maybe we need to stop and think about how our questions are affecting them and whether or not it’s appropriate to ask that question. Would you want someone asking those questions about you? Would you want to give out that information out to someone?
If the answer’s no, then maybe you shouldn’t ask that question to others.
Ordinary Travels 