Why so serious?

[u/excel_cv]

25m, feel like I’m boring as hell! I’ve had a super interesting life so far, lived in Asia for a good year, lived in the UK for 2 years and now currently based in Australia. I’ve visited almost 30 countries in total and have a bunch of stories from them all. I also get into a lot of interesting sports and hobbies like rock climbing, slack lining (and high lining) mountain biking, surfing, kite surfing, you name it. I studied economics and worked in business advisory for a while at a big 4 accounting firm and currently work in sales for a tech company.

Given all of that, I feel like I’m the most boring person on the face of this earth when I’m interacting with other people. I hate to talk about myself or share my stories and get real weird when people ask. I always seem to find myself talking to others about career, future plans, finance etc. at parties I’ll look over at other people and they will be laughing telling stories while I’m stuck one on one talking about a deep topic and not laughing at all. I get super interested in other people and their stories, I end up just asking them a million questions but then not really answering questions they ask me so it feels very one sided.

I’d class myself as a bit of an energy taker rather than an energy maker and would like to change that.

What has been other people’s experiences, does anyone else feel similar, what have your done or tried to ‘be better’?

[u/Firepath357]

Wow, I'm similar, but haven't done as many different things as you, but I do enjoy different hobbies that are not mainstream and have lead an unusual life.

For me I think it comes down to not doing things that most people are doing so can't relate too well and don't think they will relate to my niche(ish) interested.

Secondly, and like you mention, I like the details (probably being close to the spectrum / why I'm in software dev) so like discussing the details but I think other people, especially without the interest or experience in the subject can't relate or get interested too much.

I'm in my early 40s so I'm sort of starting to relax in myself and not care so much about whether the other person is interested / whether I'm boring them. It may actually be helping, but even if not, it helps me by me not worrying about it so much.