Thoughts on meeting new people

Over at Ze Frank's A Show he talked about how he teaches his interns to get to the meat of a story.

It has some very good advice.

 William the Intern is making a video about meeting people for the first time.


So Ze put out a mission to his viewers:

Don't give him advice. Instead tell him what you feel like when you meet people for the first time . Show him how specific you can be about your experience. What you fear, what you hope for, what it feel like.

Maybe you will help him find words. 

Here is my answer.

My biggest fear, when I meet someone new or in a room with people I have meet briefly but never spoken to is that I will end up talking about myself too much.

If I talk too much, then I worry that I will reveal too much.

If I reveal too much, then I worry they will judge me and find me lacking.

The main thing people focus on when they meet me is learning that I am a bullfighters daughter (I find it hard to avoid getting asked this question, though I suppose I could lie but that seems like an extra disingenuous thing to do when you meet someone new). 

Once that gets revealed, they tend to dominate our introduction by asking questions about that.

Once they ask a lot of questions about that, I am often (enough that I worry it will happen again and again and again) subject to a lengthy castigation of animal cruelty...

I have been spit on and called disgusting and this is about what my father chose, not me.

So, I tend to avoid meeting new people... because I don't want to get asked the questions that leads me to answering some question about something my father does.

I don't know that I provided any clarity for William the Intern, but at the end of the "mission" I realized this was a story.