Relearning the social norms

Have you recently felt unfamiliar with in-person interaction after over two years of virtual activities? Like you know people virtually but when you’re finally in a situation like a workshop where you have to see the same people in real life for the first time, you awkwardly physically navigate everyone else like a chicken in a barn bobbing your head, aware of other chickens but not knowing how to initiate some type of conversation? Then you take a moment to observe and everyone else is doing the same thing! It’s fascinating and nerve-wracking. A table of refreshments is always a welcome element in such events, except for moments when it’s blocked by people who would hang out there to share small talk. No choice but to share a few smiles and slither my way to obtain a cup of boxed coffee—to enjoy and use as a prop. You might think, “man, you are mega socially awkward!” You know what, not entirely, just because I finally said “hi” to someone and it led to a light conversation that catalyzed a nice follow-up email. My palms were sweaty the whole day, though. It was like I was rebooted today and all the software updates happened. Sympathetic nervous system on hyperactivity. Like a computer where the hardware is physically inanimate on the desk, but the matrix-like code is moving like a Star Wars opening crawl on 3x speed. 

Good thing it’s the weekend, thank God; and here I am trying to down-regulate by enjoying my can of carbonated water with bourgeois pretentiousness and blogging away to release all this…this mind garbage. I highly recommend some similar form of purging whether in private using the notes app on your smartphone, a diary/journal, or a dictation device (if people still use that). And if applicable (meaning if it’s not your livelihood), try to go off social media if you can. But if that’s your calm place, disregard my unsolicited suggestion. Cheers.

Update (we’ve been having a lot of these lately eh?): A colleague sent me a caring, concerned email later in the afternoon saying that my automatic reply stated that I was away in September and I meant for it to state that I was going to be off my desk for the day to be at the workshop. *facepalm* Ayayay. *pitiful laugh-cry*