I'm going to be starting my fall break in a couple of days, so this may be my last substantive post for a while. Just a heads up.
So, have you ever been in the middle of telling a story to a group of people when someone, or something, interrupts? You know, you're telling four or five people about your date last night, you say, "Finally, after two painful hours, I'm about to suggest that we call it a night, but then out of nowhere she says, 'I just had the best idea...'"
Just as you're getting to the good part, though, someone's phone rings, or someone interrupts with a joke, or someone new joins the group. Suddenly, your story is frozen in its tracks, and the momentum and attention of the group seem to be moving in a different direction.
What do you do?
This is always a tough one for me. If I'm telling a story and it gets interrupted, it creates a feeling in me similar to the feeling I get when: a) I'm about to sneeze, but it goes away; b) I stick out my hand to shake, but the person whose hand I want to shake momentarily looks away, and I'm left there with my hand thrust into the void between us, awkwardly waiting to be shaken; or c) I ask someone a question in public, but the person appears not to have heard me, and I'm sitting there wondering whether they actually heard me or not, trying to decide whether I should ask again and risk having them say, "I know, I heard you the first time."
Because having a story interrupted makes me feel this way, and because the only way to get rid of the feeling is to finish the story, I want to swing the attention of the group back to me and my story at the first opportunity.
HOWEVER, if you've ever seen someone execute this maneuver ("Let me finish telling my story..."), you know how needy and pathetic it sounds. Plus, if you do successfully re-focus the group on you and your story, there's the very real danger that you might be interrupted AGAIN before the story is done. If that happens, you've pretty much established yourself as life's equipment manager.
You want to know my solution to this dilemma? Embrace the interruption wholeheartedly. Let's say, for example, that you're telling your story, and someone in your group happens to look over at the TV and say, "Oh my God...did you guys just see that?!" Boom--right there, you accept that story time is over. Immediately, you pivot. You become the PR agent for the guy who interrupted you. You say, "No, what was it?" He says, "They just showed a school bus full of kids plunging straight off a cliff." You say, "Oh my God. Was it real? When was it? Did they say anything about what happened?"
And so on.
Yes, your story has been interrupted, and yes, that makes you feel awkward and uncomfortable, but the group doesn't need to know that. By all appearances, you couldn't care less about your story--you're now fully engaged in the new topic of conversation. You're an active participant, helping to push the new conversation forward. You recognize that you'll have plenty of other chances to tell your story...but you may never again get to bond with your friends over the horrifying death of a dozen schoolkids.
Dilemma demolished, problem solved...no thanks necessary.