Most people who know who I am experience me as the guy who never shuts up and is not afraid to speak what is on his mind and to some extent, that is who I am. I don’t really have a filter when it comes to speaking, what I think is what I say. Well, that’s true when it comes to people I know and have some familiarity with, when it comes to strangers and people I do not know, I just freeze, I mean remember my last article and how I introduced myself to Derek with the awkward handshake?

For about 17 years, this whole timidness rarely mattered, I talked to my friends since they were the ones that I knew and to an extent trusted. What threw a wrench into my routine was that I got a job. For years my parents had been nagging me to get off of my computer and go outside and get a job. I was, and still am, extremely lazy so I put it off for as long as I could. My parents would yell at me and I would just ignore them. What pushed me to go out and actually get a job wasn’t the nagging of my parents, it was at the request of my girlfriend. So, to avoid upsetting her and unleashing her wrath, I went across the street and applied to my local Walgreen’s.

After about a month or so of the application process, I got my job as a Customer Service Associate, which is a fancy term for Cashier. Now, referring back to my whole experience about how it is a struggle for me to talk to strangers, it’s easy to see where a problem could occur. My first day on the job was September 1st 2015, the same day that school started, so it is easy to see how I could be a little bit stressed out. I was a mess on the inside that day. I was terrified that I would screw up on my first day. I was terrified that I would ruin the whole store. I was terrified that I would choke under the pressure and just break down. Of course looking back I was overreacting but it was my first ever job, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

So on that fateful September day, I pulled into the Walgreen’s parking lot at three that afternoon and just sat in my car for about ten minutes slowly having a mental breakdown about having to talk to strangers and having to ask them if they needed help out of the blue. The word “Nervous” does not even come close to the sensation I was feeling in the front seat of my car. After having to give myself another small pep talk, I finally gained enough courage to walk into my new job.

About an hour into my small four hour shift, my new manager told me that I was to go upfront and work on register. My mind was pretty much working on auto pilot at this point and I just agreed because that was what the boss said so I had to go do it. So, there I was, up front, behind the counter, at my register, freaking out internally. After 30 seconds of standing there, my first customer came up. I went through the whole onslaught of questions I was instructed to ask to the customer. To my own astonishment, I managed to do it. I got through a customer, by myself. I engaged in petty small talk and actually enjoyed it. I was talking to strangers without any problems. I was actually doing it.

Slowly, by working a few more times, I gained more and more confidence to just walk up and talk to people out of the blue. I could just ask people how they were doing and if they needed any help without hesitation. That is something I never envisioned myself to ever be able to do, yet there I was, engaging in pointless chit-chat with strangers. My job has enabled me to overcome my awkwardness of talking to strangers. I feel much more open to speak and say hello to people I pass in the hallway at school. I just feel like a weight was lifted off of my chest. I know to some people talking to others is easy, but for me, it was a challenge to overcome, and I managed to do it.