Quiet people = loudest minds

“Quiet people have the loudest minds.” – Stephen Hawking.

“Some people talk to think. Other people think to talk. People who talk to think — It’s as if their mind and mouth are connected. These people tend to dominate the conversation. People who think to talk –- they hoard their thoughts in their mind and verbalize when necessary. They attach a certain feeling or idea to a word.”

This is why the latter are referred to as ‘quiet.’

However, quiet people are not as quiet as you think!

Ready for it? Here we go.

“Quiet people overthink which leads to the difficulty to put their thoughts into words. They also tend to avoid sharing words without first putting all the pieces in their minds together.”

Processing information to be able to contribute to the conversation might require a minute or two to compose together. Been there way too many times. You might now be thinking to yourself, “Soooo are quiet people slooooow?” (See what I did there lol). Nah, dear reader, they just overthink what they want to say, sometimes unnecessarily.

“They tend to talk to themselves a lot in their minds; they are constantly dealing with an internal dialogue.”

They don’t say what’s on their minds, depending on whom they are talking to, the relationship they share with the person and the topic being discussed. Therefore, they keep their thoughts to themselves, and their minds become louder as a result.

Listen y’all. Quiet people talk to themselves so much, if they said half of the things that go through their minds on a daily basis, they would be regarded as insensitive people. This fact is the reason why they think of all the scenarios and answers others may give in response to what they want to say.

Some truly believe in constructive criticism. Unfortunately, my culture misunderstands the concept. It is rebuked and  misinterpreted as ‘hating.’ N’ikibazo gikomeye vraiment. It can be discouraging. What is the point of saying something to someone who you know will misinterpret a considerate remark as an “intentional” statement to bring them down. When truly, you are only trying to be a real friend. Ntakundi, right?

“Thinking, re-thinking and validating require silence, more than you can imagine. Sometimes, the quiet ones are trying to recall something they have seen or read in the past, which is related to the topic being discussed.”

Take an introvert out to a crowded café/restaurant, then a day later, take them out in a quiet isolated environment. You’ll instantly realize how more comfortably they will express themselves in the quiet zone. It’s almost like their mind is free from distractions and they can fully focus on the conversation, especially if it’s a one on one conversation as opposed to a group of 3 or 4 friends joining the party.

Have you ever been in a group conversation, and what you wanted to say about a certain topic is not relevant anymore because the topic switched to something completely different before you had the chance to get your train of thought together for the initial topic?

I experience that all the time and it literally drives me NUTS. Hahaha! Why? Because out of the blue, a friend goes, “girl, why are you being so quiet?” And the thought of explaining what just happened would most probably not make sense to him/her in the first place.

Ask me why again. Well because out here, your quietness is read as a ‘show off’ attitude, as if you are saying, “I am way too cool to engage in this conversation.” Ain’t nobody got time to engage with those who think like that. Do yourself a favor, swerve your way out and find your tribe.

“Sometimes, I personally cannot handle the frequency at which my mind operates.”

It’s like having 10 radios in an echo sounding room, emitting 10 different radio stations, all at the highest possible volume. Daaaaamn, really?! Yup. Quiet people’s minds can be so freaking loud sometimes, that their speech only comes out as silence. I’ve learned to embrace it with time, though it has not been easy.

“That quietness can also mean a meticulous plan for something big i.e. Quiet people zone out. Scratch that, they zone out A LOT.”

It may be out of disinterest in the topic discussed, it may be out of lack of knowledge about topic x, or the quiet individual simply happens to be scripting something in their mind such as a fictional story, a blog post or a business plan. In any case, my dear non-quiet readers, don’t take it personally. Don’t even rwose.

My assumption is that you have reached the bottom of this blog post wondering, “Jeez, when is this woman wrapping this up?” Hehe.

To whom it may concern:

“Your ‘silence’ is beautiful. Wherever you are from, don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. Keep it real. Keep it deep.”

— Mimz.