Listen to understand, not to reply

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” — Dale Carnegie
A very true saying indeed, which I have applied not to actually make people like me but to avoid conflicts. I am a very quiet and not very chit chatty kind of a person, which actually gives me a huge advantage, because it makes me listen to other people more effectively. Being an elder daughter, I am a listening ear to not only my mother and father, But to all my friends and even my cousins. They know they will be heard, without being judged and frowned upon. I am often have been called the mother of my friends circle and sometimes the deep conversation friend.

Due to my listening personality, I have many lifelong friends, longest being 13 years and still counting. I even wrote one of my friends life philosophy and after reading it she told me that even she could not have written her life so well herself.
There were many reasons why I actually stopped talking about myself and started listening. One, because I was not being heard myself, I had difficulty in communication with not only with my parents but I was always the odd one out in my surroundings with my weird ideas and a different thought process than others. For which I actually stopped sharing my opinions out loud, to stop conflicts because I thought that they are not going to understand and to stop the frowns and hush hush from my elders.

Which eventually created time for me to listen to others and to know them better. Now I am a person others calls when they need a soothing ear. And I do regularly call my friends and my cousins. So when I called my friends and family they were not very surprised or suspicious. We had a nice conversation.
I was initially not very aware my this ability or so to say my ability to be interested in other people. Amal actually made me realize that, the first was when I entered in the class (I was the first one to enter) and Ma’am Zohra actually called me by my name, I was so surprised and it was so exhilarating, that I was someone important to her that she memorized my name. So there it was, the feeling of knowing that, YES , you are important, you mean something, you are valued. Listening to other person gives them the same feeling of being valued.

I have learned that sometimes a person only needs to be heard, half of your tension, your stress, your worries are solved when you have someone who listens to you. You don’t always need solution or keys to your worries.
be that SOMEONE.
