We Need to Talk

'Cause We Don't Talk No More

Monday through Friday, I probably average 7 hours of speaking per day, but I don’t talk. By talk, I mean converse. I teach teenagers in South Korea, so I get plenty of time standing in front of a class speaking. They are good kids. I truly love them like they are my own. They generally listen along and follow the instructions to complete any activities for the day. They ask me questions about the materials and other school related things, but we don’t talk. At the same time, that’s very much okay and expected. After all, what do we really have to talk about most of the time? They enjoy TikTok and K-pop “idol” talk. I don’t.

I know that some may be thinking, “You have coworkers. Talk to them.” Unfortunately, the interactions with them are generally the same as the interactions with the students, mostly work and very little life. There are the occasional side conversations about life, but everyone is usually too busy to go beyond those during the workday. “How about after work,” you ask? Throw in everyone’s family responsibilities or commitments, there really is little to no time there either. By the way, this is not me complaining about it. This is very much the opposite.

My writing here is a form of me talking with all of you. I guess that’s why I’m still okay with posting somewhat longer pieces here. I know that interactions and conversations have drastically decreased for many of you on this platform. I feel it, too. I don’t think, at least for the time being, that this is going to push me away. Nor will it drive me anymore insane than I already am. I need to converse. Even the slightest written conversation or comment here helps fill a small bit of that need.

A few years back, I had a good friend in town. We haven’t talked in several years. I need to reach out. Her name is Mara. She was my conversation companion. We would meet up after getting home from work to walk and talk about our day, our memories, our feelings, and life in general. It was great for the body and mind. Those 1 to 2 hours walks were some of the best times of my life here. We conversed. I needed it. She needed it. It was therapeutic.

All of this need to talk has recently started, or renewed, something for me. It pushed me into picking up my phone and turning on the voice recorder to make some short podcasts. No lights. No camera. No action. Just me and a recorder talking about anything that is on my mind. I used to do this on a previous YouTube channel when I would turn on the camera and talk during my drives to work. It was about baseball cards, the sports collectibles industry, and other things that would cross my mind or social media feed within the sports world. There was also a lot of life talk in there at times. I have missed it, but I had several reasons for discontinuing it.

Anyway, this picking up my phone and opening the voice recorder has been nice. It has given me a way to use my actual voice and not just write words on a screen. It has given me a path to that kind of old school conversation that used to go down. The ones that happened with friends and family sitting around and talking about life. It’s still very one sided at the moment and it may end up remaining that way. I can’t predict the future. However, I can say that I need it. I need to talk.

Also, if you do care to tune in and listen from time to time, throw a question out there. I can’t say that I’ll answer it or that I’ll even be able to answer it, but I’ll give it a try. Just don’t feel bad if I say, “Some person named snickerdoodle3407 wants to know my thoughts on adding ex-lax to the office cookies. I think it would probably be funny, but I’ve got nothing beyond that.”

Cheers,

George