What will we talk about?

Whenever I’m about to meet friends, especially when it’s a mix of people who don’t know each other, I always wonder what the interaction will be like. What will we talk about? Will it be fun? Will it be awkward? If they aren’t close friends, I start to feel a bit tense. Like I need to make sure everyone gets along or the vibe doesn’t fall flat.

Recently, I was meeting up with two friends, and another friend was joining later. He didn’t know the other two. And I caught myself spiraling a little, thinking about how it would all go. Would it be weird?

Anyway, it happened.

We met up. We started chatting. One of us visited a nude spa recently with some friends and we were talking about the experience. Just casually asking, would you go to one? With friends? With spouses around? We laughed. We debated. Then the third friend arrived and I asked him if he’ll go. He answered, and became a full part of the conversation without skipping a beat. 

No awkward pause. The conversation just flowed.

From nude spas, we moved to work. He said he was tired of it. Then Nigeria came up. Politics. Money. Life in general. We bounced between serious and silly like it was nothing. 

Like it had all been planned. But it hadn’t.

Made me think about social interactions as a whole and what fuels them. We don’t rehearse them. We just show up, and through words floating around in our minds, somehow we connect. We laugh. We learn. We feel understood.

I love the fluidity of it. Conversations don’t need to be controlled or perfect. They don’t need to be planned. You just show up. You let it happen. And most times, something beautiful unfolds.

I’m sure I’ll still  overthink some conversations but it was interesting to see. You don’t need a plan a lot of times. Just a presence.