"But the three years I spent shadowing Eli for my new book, The Boy Who Loved Too Much, taught me that perfect small talk itself wasn’t the balm for awkwardness I sought. When people responded warmly to him — and they almost invariably did — it wasn’t because he was a smooth talker. He made mistakes that would have mortified me, like calling people by the wrong name. For a while after I met him, he called me Kenny (instead of Jennie), which I later discovered was his school-bus driver’s name. But every time I showed up at his house, he was so genuinely excited to see me that it was impossible to take offense.
“Hi, Kenny!” he shouted when I came over one Saturday to accompany him and his mother, Gayle, to his special-needs baseball league. “I’m so excited to go to baseball with you! This is the best day of my life!”
https://www.thecut.com/2017/06/the-secret-to-small-talk.html
“Hi, Kenny!” he shouted when I came over one Saturday to accompany him and his mother, Gayle, to his special-needs baseball league. “I’m so excited to go to baseball with you! This is the best day of my life!”
https://www.thecut.com/2017/06/the-secret-to-small-talk.html