No, no, not that type of chipper…
So begins the least favorite part of my research project. To be fair, it’s really only because I tend to hate talking on the phone with strangers (and if I have to leave a voicemail, it’s over; I ramble forever). I think I’m super awkward when it comes to phones and I find it difficult to gauge what the other person’s thinking/feeling when there is no body language to go off of. Just their tone and the inflections in their voice while my somewhat antisocial phone is hating on the reception.
I managed to find/bump into my mentor to see if I could use the conference room and she was all for it. Before I went on my way, she told me to make sure I composed myself before I made the phone calls. This is definitely good advice, because the other reasoning I have towards hating phone calls is that I think I sound like a five year old. Unless I’m distraught with hunger pangs or wildly sleep-deprived, I think I usually sound like a super-happy cheerful kid. (The fact that I’m Asian probably does not help. A whole lot of people asked if I was old enough to drink last week. I kinda felt like answering that I’d gotten picked up from the local high school just for fun. Melanie has all the reason in the world to think of me as a really big kid [at heart, she means].)
L: Just make sure you’re not too bubbly.
F: Yeah, I definitely need to tone that down.
L: But it’s not that I don’t want you to be friendly. Just make sure you also have that gravity too.
F: Friendly but professional?
L: Yes, exactly.
Working on it! Today went well, although I definitely went the route of friendly more so than professional.
