Continued Social Awkwardness

I hear a lot of people complain about how others don't take compliments well. I can understand that. No one likes rejection, especially when you were just trying to be nice. I've rarely had any compliments I gave people to be rejected, but then again, I know that it helps that I'm a nice combination of charming and not sexually threatening. I think that people who don't get their compliments accepted assume the other person is doing so because they see it as a sexual threat. That does happen sometimes, but I think it isn't the conclusion one should always jump to when a compliment isn't accepted well.

I think some of us just get confused by compliments. It isn't that we're insulted or upset that it happened, it's just that it wasn't expected and we're not sure (in the moment) what is supposed to happen next. It isn't that we're upset or angry at the person. We're certainly not insulted by the compliment. It's just so unexpected. It's like thinking you're going to take a drink of coke and finding out the glass is full of water when it enters your mouth. Sure, you like water, but it's still enough of a shock that you might just spit it out.

This happened to me today. I walked into the mailing place and got a compliment from a guy who works there. I stumbled through and said some  things. I don't think I ever actually said thank you, though I certainly was thankful for the compliment. And no, I didn't feel creeped out about it. The man wasn't threatening me. He's like 20 years younger than me and gay. He was being nice and clearly being sincere because the compliment was about my hair and my hair did look damned good this morning.

And yet, I still stumbled through it because it was so out of the blue. I just walked in  to get my mail and say hit and suddenly I was complimented too. And I'm not complaining here. Like I said, I was fine with it. I just didn't expect it so I probably babbled a lot. I know I said something about how I'm finally happy with my bang length because when they're shorter than this (though I do love the idea of punker bangs) my hair is so fine that they never stay in place. Not that anyone cared about that. It was just my awkward response to the compliment.

So if you compliment someone and they respond kind of weirdly, don't automatically assume it's a rejection of you or the compliment. Sometimes it's just  because they don't know how to respond. It isn't that they're upset with the compliment, it's just that it wasn't what they expected. As much as it might shock people, some of us don't get complimented all that often.