The Day When I Tolerated Loud Voices

Usually, I’m the one who complains about loud noise — but not this time

A pair of blue ear defenders, with a text overlay in pink letters, which says, "The Day When I Tolerated Loud Voices".
Photo taken by the author.

A few days ago, I found myself in an unusual situation.

I’d gone to town with my fiancée, to sell an old laptop computer to a shop. When they said they needed two hours to test it, we decided to have lunch in town.

We found a nearby pub, which seemed fairly quiet.

(Quiet might not be the best word; let’s just say there were not many other people in there.)

At a nearby table, there were four women, probably around 30 years old.

I’ve never heard such loud voices in my whole life! I didn’t know humans could produce such high sound levels.

Usually, it’s me who complains about noise. But this time, my neurotypical fiancée was the one who found it unbearable. There were occasions when she flinched, after one of the women laughed.

I certainly found it irritating and distracting, but at the same time, it was something I could tolerate.

It did make me wonder though: why wasn’t I particularly bothered by all that noise?

In the past, I’d have wanted to move to another table. But on this occasion, I somehow managed to tune out the loud voices.

Perhaps all the noisy social events I’ve felt obliged to attend over the years have made me almost immune to the sound of people talking, regardless of volume level, at least for a certain period of time.

It's almost like I disconnected myself from what was going on around me.

Whatever the reason, we were both glad to be out of there!

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