I have been a notorious people pleaser my entire life. A few years ago I started working on getting better at asserting my boundaries.

I’m literally sitting in a hospital waiting room right now (not COVID related) and an older man comes to sit near me.

He starts talking to me so I awkwardly respond. We’re both in masks and of course the room is quiet because people here aren’t feeling well.

Normally I would be held hostage until they called my name but somehow after 5 minutes of conversation I perfectly ended the exchange.

This is a serious win for me.

I calmly asked his name, used it and thanked him for the conversation. Told him I wasn’t having the best day and that I didn’t really feel like talking right now.

And now us sitting next to each other is still so much less awkward then him just rambling AT me for the next 20 minutes.