You noticed the shift in her voice before she did. You clocked the one person at the party standing by the plants. You read the whole mood of a room in the first three seconds and spent the rest of the evening managing it.

People have been telling you to turn it down since you were small. Too sensitive. Overthinking. It is not that deep.

It is that deep, and you cannot turn it down, and you should stop trying. What you have is not a flaw. It is a wider antenna. Most people get three channels. You get all of them, including the static.

The trick is not to feel less. It is to find the two or three people who can hear the same channels, and stop auditioning for the ones who think the static is you.