thankful thursday #199

Next week will be my two hundredth Thankful Thursday. (What?! That seems a long time. Two hundred weeks is like four years.)

In any case, the 199th is no less important.

This week I attended a function that's practically my worst nightmare. The one where I go alone. Mingle with a myriad of people I don't know. Wear a name tag. Insert myself awkwardly into conversations (because really, what else is a single introvert to do?).

Tell kind, interested people over and over what I do for a living, which makes no sense to anyone. (That career conversation. It's a laborious broken record. Does this ever stop happening?)

We share a meal together, and mercifully our conversation creeps beneath the surface. I am grateful. Because small talk. Exhausting.

I am thankful to meet new people who welcome me, take interest in me, and don't linger long on the surface of superficiality.

Have you recently had the pleasure of meeting someone like that? Go on, be grateful!