Not many weeks ago, I told a colleague that I'd prefer him to use my full and correct name, and -- in case he couldn't handle that -- I offered up a couple of acceptable nicknames. I don't always respond to the name he had been calling me by, I told him.
Now, whenever we meet, he struggles to call me by anything else but his original name for me. After convening today's meeting, I mentioned this to another coworker.
"He has trouble calling me by my real name," I said.
"Yeah," my coworker said, "but he corrects himself half the time."
"True," I said, "but I wonder why he struggles. I think it's because he's a talker."
"Yep, he's a talker," my coworker said. "He's not like us. His words are more quick to come out."
It's not a bad trait to have, being a talker, but it's not one I readily understand. I can't imagine having difficulty with someone's name. While my colleague struggles to stop words from coming out, I struggle to make words come out at all. I deliberate on nearly everything I say. I tend to mean what I say, and I usually chew on things before they come out. Whereas he seems to have thoughts speed from their conception to his mouth, mine take long and winding detours before they're birthed.
But sometimes I wish I could be more free with my words. Or, at the least, I wish my thoughts could be more speedy.
