I've Always Been a Fast Thinker
I used to jump to conclusions halfway through someone's sentence. Then I met a person who moved my thinking to a different dimension entirely — and I learned to wait until the very end.
I've always been a fast thinker.
When I can roughly see what someone is about to say,
I often jump ahead to the conclusion midway through.
So to be honest,
listening to someone slowly, from beginning to end,
has not always been easy for me.
But after meeting a certain person,
it wasn't that my thinking changed a little —
I experienced it moving to an entirely different dimension.
Someone who showed me perspectives I hadn't seen,
made me re-examine premises I'd considered obvious,
and added a whole new axis to my thinking.
From then on, I understood.
That it doesn't matter if the words come a little slowly.
That even when I think I've predicted the conclusion midway,
there are people worth hearing out to the very end.
Because that person
may not arrive at the conclusion I predicted.
They may arrive somewhere I had never seen.
So I find myself waiting.
Until that person has said everything.
I don't think this is simply a matter of courtesy.
It's closer to respect.
No — closer to the right answer.
“In this person's thinking,
there may be things I don't yet know.
And I may be wrong.
Even if the words come slowly,
this person turns out to be right, again and again.”
That belief took root in me.
Perhaps one of the greatest forms of respect for a person
is not merely refusing to interrupt them,
but believing they can show you a world you have not yet seen —
maybe that's what it is.
And recently, I learned
that such a person actually exists.