To question or not to question

Coffee with new people is a good opportunity for me to learn about myself. And today I learned just how much I like when people ask questions back. We talked and I tried to share about myself with out being asked. But most of the time was spent with me trying to ask lots of questions to keep some sort of conversation going. She was either shy or the heat had gotten to her because she was a bit out of sorts.

This whole questioning thing made me think about my time doing cpe (clinical pastoral education) in a hospital. It's basically counseling and talking to people who are sick or visiting their families. One of the things I learned about myself during that process is that I lean to hard on questions. In fact I always have.

I don't necessarily think I am afraid of silence but I am so comfortable questioning people and having people ask me questions back. So when I hang out with someone like I did today who doesn't ask questions at all I feel a bit out of sorts.

There are a variety of things I could do to engage conversation without asking questions but for some reason I couldn't think of them. I tried to share random things about myself, but it felt random to just blurt out something. I shared when I could.

I wonder what other people do when in this situation. Should I have just stopped asking questions and tried to see how long I endured the silence? Hmmm.