Nice is overrated
The other day, I was asking a male colleague, “So how did your date go”. He replied, without batting an eye, “Well, it was kinda nice.”
In my mind, I was thinking, “WTF is ‘nice’?” Yes, I know, ‘nice’ means pleasing, delightful, and all the wonderful adjectives, but when we do use this word, way less than sparingly, does the word still mean what it entails (or perceive to entail)?
Going back to my male colleague. I knew he went on a dinner date with this gorgeous and down-to-earth girl. When you say a date with someone like her is ‘kinda nice’, it can mean either ends of the continuum. It can mean, “Oh, the date went SO WELL, and X girl is just FANTASTIC, but I cannot look overly-enthusiastic in front of Grace (a male ego thing). I will just pretend that I don’t give shit.” OR “The date was disastrous and X girl? Too boring, too stiff and not my cup of tea, but I will just be a gentleman and say that she is ‘nice’.” So what did he actually mean? I really have no idea.
Personally, I know I use ‘nice’ way too much, and sometimes, it is used more as a filler than anything. Just today, Nicole asked me, “How was your run yesterday?” My run was near to non-existence. I started my run at 10pm, and just less than 2km into it, my stomach was staging a protest and acting up. I had to stop and brisk walk back home, while trying so hard to keep my sh*t where it should stay before I hit the loo. Hence, it was a bad bad run.
And my reply to N was, “Nice!”
My only excuse of telling such a blatant lie was that I was lethargic and still feeling the roll-over effects of Monday blues. And I really didn’t want to go into the details of me nearly crapping in my shorts, knowing how N will most definitely probe.
So, my point is, 'Nice' is overrated. With a little bit of laze and the gloomy blues lurking, anyone and everyone can be nice. The next time someone say you are nice, you either take it with a gigantic dollop of salt or give him the benefit of the doubt that he meant it, and not cuz he was running out of things to say from his adjectives vault.
In my mind, I was thinking, “WTF is ‘nice’?” Yes, I know, ‘nice’ means pleasing, delightful, and all the wonderful adjectives, but when we do use this word, way less than sparingly, does the word still mean what it entails (or perceive to entail)?
Going back to my male colleague. I knew he went on a dinner date with this gorgeous and down-to-earth girl. When you say a date with someone like her is ‘kinda nice’, it can mean either ends of the continuum. It can mean, “Oh, the date went SO WELL, and X girl is just FANTASTIC, but I cannot look overly-enthusiastic in front of Grace (a male ego thing). I will just pretend that I don’t give shit.” OR “The date was disastrous and X girl? Too boring, too stiff and not my cup of tea, but I will just be a gentleman and say that she is ‘nice’.” So what did he actually mean? I really have no idea.
Personally, I know I use ‘nice’ way too much, and sometimes, it is used more as a filler than anything. Just today, Nicole asked me, “How was your run yesterday?” My run was near to non-existence. I started my run at 10pm, and just less than 2km into it, my stomach was staging a protest and acting up. I had to stop and brisk walk back home, while trying so hard to keep my sh*t where it should stay before I hit the loo. Hence, it was a bad bad run.
And my reply to N was, “Nice!”
My only excuse of telling such a blatant lie was that I was lethargic and still feeling the roll-over effects of Monday blues. And I really didn’t want to go into the details of me nearly crapping in my shorts, knowing how N will most definitely probe.
So, my point is, 'Nice' is overrated. With a little bit of laze and the gloomy blues lurking, anyone and everyone can be nice. The next time someone say you are nice, you either take it with a gigantic dollop of salt or give him the benefit of the doubt that he meant it, and not cuz he was running out of things to say from his adjectives vault.