“You were running through the
store like a cheetah,” Larry told me.
We laughed, and I said he was
exaggerating, but I actually would have liked to be able to run like a cheetah
on Saturday.
We had to go to the local big box
store. I hate going to the big box store. I don’t like shopping, and I don’t
like being in crowds, and the big box store includes both.
After a little while of dodging
other people, being caught in cart traffic jams, and listening to the voices of
hundreds of people, I reach the point where I take over pushing the cart and
barrel my way to the checkout as fast as I can.
I shouldn’t blame it all on the
big box store. I just don’t like crowds and noise, and when I reach the point
where I feel like I can’t take it anymore, I feel a bit frantic and in need of
an escape.
I guess I’m partly like this
because I’m very introverted. And I come up as a highly sensitive person when I take the self-test.
I have to make adjustments, of
course. Sometimes I have to be in crowds; sometimes I have to work in the midst
of noise. But I try to limit those situations.
One of the things that bothered me
about taking the town job—one of the things that was sitting in my gut, telling
me to be careful—was a comment that was made to me by one of the people I talked
with during the hiring process. I would have had to work with this person.
He told me that he would make me
into an extrovert.
I didn’t like that. There is
nothing wrong with being an introvert. There is nothing wrong with being
sensitive. I’m an adult, I’m pretty self-aware, and I have learned to adapt
myself to what needs to be done without changing who I am.
I will just keep adapting when I
have to. And when need be, I’ll run like a cheetah.
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How do you react to being in crowds?
