"It makes me feel good to know you like my company." A friend of mine said this to me, and it made me respect him even more. Which he would totally know if he could read my mind but likely will never know because it seems like I can't say things like that out loud.
"I'm really glad to have you as a friend." He just says these things. Can you believe it?
I can't claim he does so without embarrassment, but it's all the more admirable because he is obviously embarrassed, but he thinks it is important for him to tell me these things. And then I sit there not making eye contact like a chump, feeling strangely glad that I think he can tell I am okay with his company even if I am apparently incapable of saying so. And also glad that he likes my company, as I am, on the whole, less likeable company than most. : )
Not that, apparently, I can say this to his face. I hope he understands that, me being who I am, that fact that I hang out with him means the things I don't say. Or maybe he can read it here where I can write things I can't say.
Some things need to be said. Often those things are the ones I can't say. Why is it so hard for me to say these kinds of things? Why do I never think to say them first?
Apparently, my brain believes it is important that I say things first sometimes. If I say, "I feel the same way" or "Me, too," in response, I feel like that's cheap and insincere, like it doesn't count if I don't say it first, or something. (Count for what, I don't know.)
It's been this way since I was a child and could never seem to be the first one to thank my dad for taking me out for free pizza I earned reading books. I would sit in the car reminding myself to remember to say it, but then we'd go inside, and the food would come, and I would be eating it, and my sister would always say, "Thank you," first, and I would feel I had lost. (At what, I don't know. But it seems like this is related to my current hangup.)
Are there things that you find it difficult/impossible to say to others?
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