Everyone has awkward moments, but some are just sort of forced upon us. Like those times when you get stuck in a conversation with someone you don’t know, or one that doesn’t intrigue you in the slightest. How about when you say hi to that girl from your bio class and she decides to cry to you about her recent break up? Or when you get stuck sitting on the plane next to the guy who wants to show you videos of his cats?

We all end up saying the same things. “Cool,” or, “Wow…” or maybe, “yeah yeah.” While those work for the first few times, you can’t rely on them forever. Eventually people catch on that you really don’t care—or that you don’t know what to say—and then it's more awkward because they’re aware of your lack of interest! So what do you do? If you’re anything like me, you keep using those go-to phrases, because you honestly are just so awkward in that moment that you have nothing else to say. So “Right, right” “Wow…crazy…” and “That’s awesome” complete your vocabulary until these acquaintances finally pick up on your vibe and stop talking. It’s not like you don’t want to talk to them, it’s just that sometimes you are caught off-guard, or you genuinely have no words. This is a universal problem, and anyone who says it's not is lying! We all do it, and we all have the same phrases! It’s comical how similar we all are in these situations.

I was flying home from school this morning on a plane from Phoenix, Arizona, when this middle-aged man sat down next to me. He was a super nice guy, and I could tell he was a talker, so naturally I tried to figure out exactly how long I should talk to him before trying to put in my headphones (we all do it—don’t deny it). He sat down and began to ask me about my flight experience, where I was headed, my schooling—the usual. We chatted for a bit until the plane began to take off and he stopped talking to me in favor of looking out the window to watch the ground slip away beneath us. I began to put in my headphones so I could tune out the whirring of the engine and get some sleep, but then he turned to me again. This time he had pulled out his phone and wanted to show me videos of his cats sun-bathing. I smiled and nodded and tried to be interested, but the cat was literally just lying on his floor in a spot of sunshine and swishing his tail. He thought it was the funniest thing, and I quickly tried to think of something great to say about it, so I said, “Oh, how cute!” and “Wow” and then, “That’s awesome…” I probably said those same phrases about fifteen times before he finally put his phone away and settled back into his seat to rest.

These situations happen to all of us, but we can make the most of them by being sincerely kind and then laughing about it later, because awkward moments are funny, and we’ll never be able to escape them.