Mason  🏃‍♂️ ✂️

A strange thing happened to me the other night. I was on the subway (BART), and a man sat next to me who was Not Okay. If you’ve lived in a big city, you know the type: eyes huge, shouting, flailing. Many of the people in the car were staring us — I think they were scared for me

And I just... wasn’t? I leaned back and relaxed into my seat. My body language became *more* comfortable. I closed my eyes and listened to my music as the guy shouted at the other passengers

When the train slowed to my stop, I turned to him, and I said quietly, “Hi. I have to leave now. Is that okay?” His eyes were bulging and he looked furious, but he quickly stood and moved out of my way. The people around looked mortified

And, like... I don’t know how I knew what to say, or why I wasn’t worried?

A lot of people have told me that I’m good with people, that I read people well, that I have a “high EQ.” I’ve been trying to figure out what that is, and this feels like kind of an important piece, since this was a relatively novel situation for me & I still knew what to do