Don’t you love going home for the holidays? Seeing your siblings, parents and Aunt Sally, who you haven’t seen in ages, makes the holidays all the more joyous. Until…they ask you those questions. You know exactly what I’m referring to. Those questions that suddenly make you feel awkward. Here are some ways to avoid answering those uncomfortable questions without an awkward answer.
“Why don’t you have a boyfriend (or girlfriend)? It’s been awhile!”
Politely let your family member know that you are dating school. Tell them you frequently go on 50 minutes to an hour-and-fifteen-minute dates. Sometimes it makes you happy, and sometimes it makes you sad, but you see a successful future in the long run.
“When are you graduating?” Or “What are you planning on doing after you graduate?”
After three or more years in college, you get tired of hearing these questions. If you don’t have a step-by-step plan, then you can answer these questions by informing them that you spent your entire college career trying to answer these very questions and have yet to come to a conclusion. It takes time to figure out exactly what we want to do for the rest of our lives, and family asking when we’ll figure it out puts more pressure on us.
“What does (insert slang word) mean? It sounds stupid. We didn’t use that back in my day.”
Family has to understand that their days have passed and their old slang terms went with them. We know the new slang terms are stupid, but we use them anyway during those moments when we don’t take life as seriously. Depending on the word, explain to them as politely as possible and don’t use explicit terminology. You don’t want to give Grandma a heart attack while trying to explain what twerking is or why people get “turned up” all the time.