The Secret Sauce of Interesting People

I had my heart crushed recently by a fuckboy. I didn’t know him long nor did I know him well. But the parts of him he allowed me to see I found incredibly intoxicating. Like, have you ever met someone so good looking it actually ruins your day? Or maybe they have an impossibly cool name like Malcom or Sloan. He certainly had all these qualities but more than that he was just.so.interesting.

Interesting is a tough word to define because it can take on very different meanings. Ironically, I once worked for a manager who used the word as a stall tactic anytime he found something uninteresting (“ahhh... yes… interesting. Pleasestoptalkingnow”). There also seems to be a common narrative sweeping the nation that the places you’ve traveled somehow make you more interesting. And though I don’t deny the benefits of being well traveled I do question this as the sole marker of what makes someone “interesting.”

I began doing a mental tally of all the people in my life I found interesting. What was the shared quality between them? Could I trace it back to one commonality? I started listing out the obvious: hometown, level of education, hobbies. When this became unfruitful I moved to habits and idiosyncrasies: dominant hand, quirks, level of OCD-ness. While it was a funny fucking exercise it didn’t really reveal much. It wasn’t until I started reflecting on the not- so- great qualities and skeletons in the closet that I had a revelation.

I thought about my friend. She is incredibly pretty, equally as smart and yes… very interesting. But it’s a little known fact she wore an eye patch in middle school. Which, coincidentally, is actually the worst time in your life to be a person. Everyone knows girls aged 12–14 rank just above Charles Manson on the human cruelty scale. However, if you were to meet her now you would never guess her past. She carries herself incredibly well. Similarly, this guy who crushed my heart earlier also overcame a tough childhood. Was this perhaps the secret sauce?

What if being interesting is not about where you’ve been, but about what you’ve overcome.

I started to apply my social theory to arguably interesting famous people to see if it held true. If you google search “most interesting people” I recommend reading their pre-fame bios. People like Elon Musk, Jennifer Lawrence and J.K.Rowling all powered through varying degrees of personal strife from school bullies to complicated family dynamics. I guess what I’m saying is celebrate your flaws, own your vices and embrace your past. Chances are people will find you more interesting for it.