On reddit, someone asked “What are you not good at?” and after sorting through the mental Big Book of Things I’m Not Good At, er, At Which I Am Not Good , oh bother….   maybe it’s time to add grammars to it.  After sorting through the list, I decided on which one I’d cover:

I feel uncomfortable accepting compliments.

I feel like it would be arrogant, and that helps make me bad at it. In my head, I imagine that once I say “thanks”, the person complimenting me for something would think “oh geez, look who’s full of himself?”  I understand that’s probably not the way things would actually go down but knowing a thing and believing a thing are two different…   things.

Consequence: when I try to accept a compliment, I clumsily try to leave escape-routes or couch the acceptance in conditionals so I’m not boxed into some awkward situation. This, of course, just makes things more awkward.

Me: “You get that thing I sent ya?”
Them: “Oh yeah, nice work! I really like how it turned out, you did a great job on the UI.”
Me: “Tha-.. uh… you too.”
Them: “What?”
Me: “I mean…  you did a great…  job at testing it, I really appreciate that.”
Them: “…thanks?”
Me: “welp… see ya later!”

It’s excruciating, in trying to avoid being a pretentious ass who just accepts compliments as if they’re my due, I end up being a weirdo who people hate talking to.  

On the plus side, there’s something I’m good at.  I mean, making normal conversations awkward or accidentally breaking the normal flow of conversation might not be typical On-Purpose Skills, but I can nail it every time.