Most of the time he doesn't speak at all unless directly spoken to and anything he does say is usually only to ask a questions or make jokes. With people he does not know well he often sticks to small talk, as if he doesn’t know what he can say around them without feeling like they‘re sizing him up. He tells me he prefers to watch and listen to someone to get to know them so he can tell how much and what sides of him he can safely share with this or that person. What he does share of himself always sounds like he has given an incredible amount of thought to before saying it and it even can have a very insightful (I call it spiritual, but he thinks I’m being too generous) sound to it. He doesn’t have many friends whom he feels close enough with that he can share most everything with, but when he meets someone like this I think I can fairly say that he loves that person. When it comes to keeping in touch he’s very horrible at it and the times we’ve spent a while apart it’s as if he needs a short while to reconnect, but he says that he just needs time to fall back into the way things were not that his feelings have changed. His worry is that the other person’s have though I try to tell him that why would I be here if they had?
Overall, he's a very calm, sensitive person and always polite to everyone. Frequently he helps others in a way that seems to me like he's making sacrifices needlessly and hurting himself in the process, which makes me think he needs someone who can watch out for him since he ignores himself a lot of the time. This makes we wonder because we’ve discussed this and he is very much aware, but he tells me that sometimes that is what the world needs more of. He does admit that sometimes it winds up putting him in a position where he feels overused by the people around him. Part of him expects others to see what he is doing and know when they are asking too much. When it comes to taking care of things which are going to have an impact on his own life he can be really lazy. As if he honestly doesn‘t care that much. When he sees it as being important to or affecting his friends or family though he works very hard for them. In fact, these are the times that he looks the happiest, when he can do these things for the people he cares about. He never really asks for anything in return, though he has said that just feeling they appreciate it is often enough to make it worthwhile for him.
On the downsides, he strikes me as the kind of person who cares too much about what people think about him and a lot of times he withdraws rather than risk making someone think less of him. This makes me sad because there is so much good in him and he tells me he would rather have someone dislike him not knowing hardly a thing about him than to understand who he is and think he wasn’t worthwhile. He can space out pretty easily thinking and sometimes I’ve noticed he will tune out from somebody if he finds them completely boring or hostile where he tells me he literally didn’t hear a word they said. With people he considers friends though it is almost like he hears even the things you thought no one did. Sometimes I get the feeling as if he hears even the things that I’ve left unsaid. He doesn’t tell me or try to talk it out as often as what he does for me shows me that somehow he knows.