I Hate That I Started Doing This
“Don’t Interrupt. Rude”
I have a friend that I periodically still talk to. In middle school, she always interrupted me. I loved her, but oh my god it would make my blood boil. Thinking about it now, I want to say it more had to do with just how loquacious she was and not actually interrupting me for my stutter, say 60/40, but at the time I thought 20/80. I feel like I couldn’t get a word in because she would quite literally rob me of said word. It didn’t help that she was a fast talker. Most days I was sweating to keep up.
One day when she was going on about something and I started zoning out and thinking to myself. I thought, is it really that hard? Do I have to start interrupting people now just to get a word in? I knew that interrupting was rude in general, and as a PWS I hate if someone interrupts me because they think they’re doing me a favor.
And so I started interrupting.
I shouldn’t excuse the fact that it's more conversational interrupting, where you and the speaker are just riffing off each other, but that is the majority of my interrupting. Yet, for it to be one of my biggest pet peeves as a PWS (see my “#3 Don’t Do’s” Post), the hypocrisy runs deep.
So this is me calling myself out and actively working to fix it.
Back in college, I roomed with one of my best friends and even though she’s known me for 6 years at that point, the conversation on stuttering has been little to none (a different storytime). I was telling her things that fluent people do that bother me, and she confessed about her interruptions. She apologized if there were moments she’s filled in my words. She said she does it with others, but coming from my personal struggle, she didn’t realize how frustrating that could be for me.
I forgave her of course but also remembered how I’ve changed.
I’ve had interjections with old and new friends about interrupting and here is where I stand: if the interrupting is completely conversational and it's just us vibing then I have no qualms. If and only if I am stuttering, please don’t interrupt. I’m not an Ad Lib.
