Christian_7.1_OL

I am one that is willing to listen and to help her friends, however I do need to point out that I am not a nosy person, and thus do not really ask about others' personal lives. 

My friends have often told me that they like talking to me when they feel uneasy about something, because they find me trustworthy and say that talking to me helps them. I try my best to make them smile again. However, now that I think about it, usually the stories I hear about relationships are from a broken-heart perspective. Mostly about friends having issues with his or her significant one. I take is as they just need someone to talk to and release a little bit of the pain they're feeling. However... in several occasions it's happened that I run into random people that I happen to be sitting next to in the bus or maybe in a waiting room somewhere.. and suddenly they start talking about their personal life, and how the husband left them and they have been struggling with kids... or maybe about how the boyfriend mistreats them... or something like that, and then I noticed that that is the most I hear when people talk to me about their relationships. 

When friends feel uneasy and they come to me to talk, I try to be comforting, but I am objective too... if my perception is that they are not being reasonable or that they are being self-centered I will nicely tell them. That's not the case when strangers come to me to talk... I simply listen because I have nothing to tell on my behalf that can help. I do not know the situation, and I assume they are not looking for advice, but just for somebody to listen to them. 

I cannot make count of how often the stories make speakers look stupid, bad, or egotistical, as opposed to smart, decent, and generous... these are all even in the stories I have heard.