My Catchphrase
by Brian Hioe
A friend drew a caricature of me at a sketching event the other day, and wrote “It’s one of those things” beneath it, like a caption.
“Do I say that a lot?” I asked. Apparently, I do. On reflection, I realized that I tend to say that in the awkward silences when there’s nothing to say.
Since then, I’ve paid undue attention to saying “It’s one of those things” out of habit. I’ve often felt, though, that I have a very repetitive way of speaking. It may just go back to my work, in which I frequently get interviewed about Taiwanese politics for international media, or for various academics and experts researching Taiwan. Inevitably I get asked a lot of the same questions, over and over, and so I wind up giving the same answers to many different people. Sometimes I feel like a Magic 8 Ball that you shake to get answers about Taiwan.
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