This is certainly going to be an interesting project.
So hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the life of a 24-year-old gay man living in Chelmsford Essex, United Kingdom.
The name is Daniel. You can call me Dan if you like but under no circumstances should you call me Danny. I’m serious. I’ll rip your nose off and give it to a crying toddler as a play toy.
Why am I writing this blog? Simple really, the first reason is because I enjoy writing. I hardly ever get a chance to write nowadays due to my ball-breaking, mind-crushing writer’s block that lives permanently within my skull. So instead I write random gibberish and attempt to form them all into understandable sentences.
Secondly, there’s always a lot going on in my little feeble mind. It never hurts to simply write them all down.
Let’s get the ball started shall we.
Currently I am at my part-time job writing this very blog post. (I won’t say where I work because that’s pretty dumb right? But let’s just say that I work in hospitality/front of house) my job demands I sit here and talk to the public on a very regular basis. Generally there’s nothing wrong with that. If you were to ask me seven years ago if this was going to be my job, I wouldn’t believe you. Back then I worked behind the scenes and on my frigid lonesome. I enjoyed it. I didn’t interact with others and I never had to worry about what they thought of me. It was quite easily the best job I ever had (Taking away the hours of mindless and physically demanding work I had to do, it was great!)
But now, I work very closely with the public and if there was one person who I had to blame for this change then that would be my mother.
When we both worked at the same job together, she forced me to help her out at the centre’s café in the early hours of the morning. She would prepare the food and I would talk to the customers, take their orders and money. I remember these shifts to this day like they were yesterday. There was nothing more awkward and difficult for a seventeen year old then to talk and ‘mingle’ with random strangers at 7 o’clock in the morning. I remember trying to interact and be funny and have a laugh but it was all so forced. Nothing I said or did seem to come across as being natural. Nothing I truly did flowed correctly. It was only because I watched my mother’s behaviour and demeanour as she worked that I discovered the following aspects to overcoming this problem.
• Make yourself appealing to people.
• Be polite.
• Smile.
• Positive body language.
And the most important lesson she ever taught me. “Remind yourself that it’s not the end of the world. If you make a mistake, you make a mistake. It’s natural and understandable. You’re only human and so are they.”
True words in my opinion. Words that have helped shape my behaviour to the way I am now. Hell I would never have the balls to do what I do nowadays if I knew I couldn't have a back-and-forth with a customer on a daily basis.
