My Ears Are Giving Me A Headache!

Will the day that I start charging for counselling sessions ever come? Can listening to someone's sob story be held only in the closed room where no one else will find out about your little secrets? Where I'd finally be ready to actually listen to the crap u got stored up inside?

Sometimes I wonder how much money I'd be making if that was the case. I'm fine listening to your problems if you're a friend, or at least someone I've known for a bit. But these thoughts pop into my mind when some total stranger can come up to me and tell me their sob story.

How the hell do I get myself into such situations?

I can be waiting for my mom to get her groceries and somehow that's an open invitation to tell me their life story. It's amazing that they come up to me at the supermarket rather than at the hospital.

I meet them for the first time and they start getting emotional, telling me their problems and that somebody pisses them off. Some even go almost to the point of crying but I wonder if it's just the alcohol talking then.

Is it just me?

Am I too nice, smiling too much? I don't even smile enough at work!

Am I too sympathetic, empathetic? Do I care too much even though I try my best not to care at all? In the end, the problems that people have would kinda stick with you for a while and that's when the cesspit of problems starts giving me a problem. So if I care too much, I'd end up having major problems myself, just like now when I'm pissed off with the situation.

Do I have a some sort invisible sign on me that only people with something heavy on their hearts can see? Some weird sign that says: "I'm a walking listening ear! Come tell me your problems and let them leave your heart." Can some of you just ignore the sign? I mean how open can you get? Walk up to a total stranger and start a conversation telling your life's story. Honestly, have you spared a thought for the listening ear? That maybe they might not be interested? That they might think you're a bloody psycho? That it shocks the hell out of them because they're just not ready to have that kind of assault?

Yes it's an assault. It's rather horrible having to listen and dread the minute you decide to ask; "What do you think about it?" or "What do you think I should do?". Was I even supposed to take you seriously and listen to every word you say? Who the hell are you in the first place? I don't even know your bloody name and you expect me to listen and analyse your problem?

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

How I wish I can switch the sign off with a wiggle of my nose.