How do you pass as normal?

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How do you pass as normal?

Shock Therapy. I worked in retail for 6 months, including through the Christmas rush (that was 5 months in). It was incredibly good for me - I had to look people in the eye, keep talking if I was flustered, ignore masses of people around me, answer the phone the moment it rang, hold names in my head (I'm still terrible at this overall, but I can maintain a couple for 5 or 10 minutes now, at least), and just keep going on adrenaline even if internally I feel like curling up in a ball and crying because it's all too much. I think it would be most people here's idea of hell, and honestly if you'd told me before what it was going to be like, there's absolutely no way I'd have taken the job, but overall it changed me in very significant and positive ways, and made it far more possible for me to operate. If it's something any of you think you might be able to make it through without melting down (if you wouldn't make it through the day, clearly it's not a strategy that'll work for you, though), I would highly, highly recommend giving it a try. I went from being a quiet mouse who'd never talk to anyone and keep only within a very small circle of friends to someone who, if they have to, can go into a crowd of people and talk, although I'd still not choose to do so, and it is difficult. So much of operating in society is confidence, and not letting the world overload you. My coworkers one of the jobs I took after it even described me as self-assured and confident. That would never have happened prior to working in retail.

Oh, I should explain why I took the position in the first place - I was working in a comic and gaming store, and one of my obsessions at the time was trading card game cards, so I was able to focus on one of my obsessions on the job, I think that was what made it possible (and made them interested in employing me).

Shock Therapy.


cereal?