Discussion Question Number Two

A recent vague statement I've heard would definitely have to be a friend of mine who seems to utter completely ambiguous things all day, every day, which she's all the more wonderful and hilarious for doing so. This statement: 


"I don't want to go first--you...go first...".


We were just calmly eating our food, talking to each other in the Dining Commons when she came out with this.


I don't know what this means.


I think everyone else at the table was just as, if not, more confused than I was at that moment when she uttered that, but one thing for sure was that she made me cackle like nobody's business. Just a few moments before, two other friends were speaking about their Chemistry class, and how they were struggling to light their Bunsen burner for hours, this same friend surprisingly exclaimed: 


"YOU COULDN'T BURN A FIRE FOR THREE HOURS?"


This guy. Her expression was flawless, as serious as could be, and on point, which of course made me laugh so much.


I would say this first statement from my friend constitutes as vague and/or ambiguous because there is no possibly way to dissect her reasoning as to why she felt she needed to express this or what it concerned. She refused to tell us why she'd said it, furthermore leaving the ambiguity of the statement. Going first could lead to a plethora of things for one. It could be going first to leave the table after we were done eating so she wouldn't be the one to walk in front of us, but that wouldn't be too plausible as we hadn't planned on leaving just yet. Who knows, only she does. I just understood that she wanted to, at the very least, do whatever she had in mind in doing, as long as she wasn't the first to do so--that was very clear. I simply didn't, and still don't, know what to make of it. And the others at the table, from what I could tell, did not know either. A few more words of clarification at the end of her sentence could have resulted in an understanding sigh of relief which, in the end, she did not give. The reaction of confusion along with not being able to distinguish a single conclusion helps in supporting the common reaction when dealing with ambiguity, which in this case, proved to be present.