Observations from the Other Side

I am the kind of person who will walk to the other side of the street to avoid coming in contact with someone trying to hand me a flyer, sell me something on the street, ask if I wanna answer their questionnare or ask would I like to donate to help promote indigenious frog rights. To people who work for a power company or sell phone plans, I always say I’m already their customer and hurry off. And I’m always soooo busy, late for a meeting on just about to make a call. I will make it my mission to look like I should not be bothered, and I avoid eye contact like I was in Birdbox.

Today I tried just how frustrating and annoying it is to be the person who hands out flyers and tries to get people to go to the companys booth to talk more. I knew it was going to be annoying and I would be very far off my comfort zone, but I took the day as it were reseach and a people watching opportunity. I did hate every second of it, but at least will make a few bucks by writing about it.

I was volunteering (read:slave labour as a favour for my mother) to hand out flyers for a roof construction company. The breefing for it lasted for a minute and off I went to walk around the halls. It was so_hard to go up to a random people and try to hand them a flyer and say that they should go visit the booth and take part in a raffle where they can win a roof maintanence.

I’m super shy by nature and I had to gather all my confidence to walk up to random people. I got turned down a lot, and by this point, the guys will say, yeah that is what life is for ugly men, and worse because it’s personal, mine was business which I wasn’t even any way related to. I wasn’t really fazed by the rejection, I knew it would happen a lot, and it’s nothing personal. But it is so awkward to try and speak to someone and they cut you off before you finish a sentence. But it is what it is and I will still do the same when I’m the one being stopped by someone.

Majority who didn’t completely turn me down, has surprisingly just had their roof fixed or had a new house altogether. It’s funny but I totally get it, it’s an easy thing to shut say to down the conversation.

I mainly targeted older men (hello gold digger me) because they are always nice to pretty young things like myself, and yeah, I said that because from their point of view, it’s pretty much a fact and I know it and will use it for my advantage. I did get a few compliments on my looks from sweet old men, that being the only perk for the day. The other reason for me to approach older men and couples was that they probably own a house so they would be the democraph the company is targeted towards. No use in approaching young people, we all broke or live in apartment buildings.

Finnish people in general are super awkward, and it’s funny if you can push through your own awkwardness to observe both your own and other peoples. I stumble in my words very easily, especially when it’s a subject and situation I’m not familiar with, but so do the people I approached. We say the weirdest things when we are not prepared for the question and just want to get out of the situation.

The funniest thing someone said to me clearly without much thinking was:”we already have a roof”, and walked away. Well good for you sir, I’m happy to hear that.

By the way, approaching people didn’t get any easier at any point of the day, just harder and the minutes went by so slowly, it was killing me. By the time I had toured the convention floor for four hours, I hid in the bathroom for a good while to text with friends and scroll Steemit. And started writing a draft for this piece.

Now the day is over and I got through it without embarrasing myself too much, I do walk with my head high anyways and smile easily when talking to people, even when I mumble something weird.

I will say with a 99% certainty that I will never ever do anything like this again. Unless someone pays me, a lot. All I got for this was a red hoodie and my moms gratitude, the latter I will save for when I want mom to bake or cook me something.

Ps. I ended up walking 8 kilometres in 13cm heeled booties, how’s that for a workout for my legsies!?