Small Talks: A New Year Resolution

Last updated Jan 8, 2025

Writing

Some Small Talk

As I make my annual/bi-annual trek back up to Canada, I had the opportunity to meet many friends (not much family since they are all in China). Among these opportunities was the long-dreaded annual family friends gatherings. As a kid, I hated these gathering. To be honest, as a pseudo-adult, these gatherings are not much more fun. The part that makes these gatherings less fun are the mandatory small talk segments.

Personally, I don’t think small talks are particular bad. One specific reason I don’t like them is because I suck at them. Generally, the below conversation is how one of my small talk conversations goes.

sequenceDiagram rect rgb(230, 230, 255) PersonA->>PersonB: Hello! How are you? Crazy weather huh? PersonB->>PersonA: Yeah crazy weather these days, wish I was somewhere warm. PersonA->>PersonB: Same here. PersonB->>PersonA: How's your year? PersonA->>PersonB: Good, how's yours? PersonB->>PersonA: Good! PersonA->>PersonB: Crickets PersonB->>PersonA: 🦗🦗🦗 end

Scarred by the past week’s socially awkward moments, I have made a goal to improve on my small talk abilities. There are always so much to talk about and learn about from someone, it is time to squash some crickets. While I am talking about new year resolutions, here is a complete list of my new year resolutions for 2025.

Tom’s Resolutions for 2025 and Beyond
Have more meaningful small talks
Dive head first into more things without hesistating (maybe not a good idea)
Play less League of Legends (like way less)
Exercise way more (don’t be this guy -> 🥔)
TBH just complete one or two of these

Happy late 2025 and here’s to hoping that I accomplish any of these goals for 2025.