Daughters of Promise November/December 2014 | Page 34

SOMEONE HE’D LIKE YOU TO MEET
by Benji Mast
Photography by Lorida Burkholder

When you board a bus, do you put your bag on
the seat beside you so you don’t have to talk with
anyone? When you go to parties do you look for
a cup of punch to hold and a corner to stand in?
If you work with people you don’t have much in
common with, do you avoid them?
If you can identify, you probably consider yourself
an introvert. Or perhaps you consider some
people too difficult to talk to.
I beg to differ.
You may be introverted, someone who gets
weary from prolonged exposure to people. I know
I am. But that’s not the real reason we struggle to
engage in meaningful conversation. Perhaps the
people we’d like to talk to are aloof. However,
what comes off as aloofness is often fear in them,
and it is not the real reason we find it difficult to
begin to talk with that person.
The real reason is something else, but you’re not
going to like it very much.
Have you ever had two
friends that you think
should meet? When I got
to know this guy named

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Caleb at college, I knew he should meet my
brother.
My brother Hans writes a regular news column
because he’s the kind of guy who knows all
the events going on in the world. Hans’ IQ is
somewhere between really high and extremely
high. He completed high school in two years
because he could.
Caleb is into politics and smart stuff too. He’s the
kind of guy who does internships in Washington
D.C. and was elected student body president
his junior year. That was after he also won it his
sophomore year.
I wanted Caleb and Hans to meet. I just thought if
they talked then the world could be saved, or at
least the conversation would be very interesting.
One night Caleb called me. He needed some
ideas for an essay about libertarian policy. I
confidently told him I was pretty sure I knew what
libertarian policy was, but
guessed he wanted a little
more. I glanced at Hans
sitting across the living
room. “Just a sec, let me
put you on speaker phone,

EVEREST
GODLY MEN ENCOURAGE US ON TO THE SUMMIT.