For the most part, I feel like I am a fully functioning adult. I can hold down a job, I can pay my bills, I can update the registration on my car. I can do grown-up things.
But then there are those small things that just feel so daunting.
Like making a phone call.
I will go to great lengths to avoid a phone call. Throughout this entire home renovation my basic criteria for hiring service people was “do they have an email address?”But having to cold call a business? It’s JUST TOO HARD. And don’t get me started on the moms who send their phone number home with my kid to schedule a playdate. If it doesn’t have a note that I can text them, it’s probably not going to happen.
I mean, calling someone? And then talking, or maybe leaving a message and then having someone call me? The mere thought of it is just too overwhelming to bear.
(May I remind you that I am the person who kept two Netflix movies for nine months because I couldn’t find the strength to call customer service and request a new red envelope).
Confession: I have turned down several jobs because they involved regular conference calls. I have decided that my conference call rate is ONE MILLION DOLLARS.. Anything less is just not worth it for me.
I have another adulting issue and recently discovered I’m not alone in this one either: going to the post office. Recently I went to a girl’s weekend in Texas with some friends. These are powerhouse women who do Big Things: they write books and run NGO’s and deliver babies. But it seems that all of us share something in common in that we just cannot get ourselves to the post office.
Here is my friend Jamie, who took a photo of herself leaving the post office like a bad-ass:
She recently told our group of girlfriends that she was going to have to go to the post office to mail in the contract for her book, and the rest of us were like, “Hmmm. Maybe you should just give up. That’s too hard.”
Such supportive friends.
Anyways, I’m curious. What aspect of adulting do you find the most challenging? Anyone else have similar issues with the post office or making phone calls?
EDITED TO ADD: I’m dying. DYING. Because not even five minutes after posting this, I checked instagram and found this gem from Jamie.
We can do hard things, you guys.
I HATE calling places. My husband and I argue over who has to deal with phone calls. And totally only hire people with websites. I do have to call people at work sometimes, but that is Work Me and she's better at it. Post office though, I'm a pro.
I cannot make phone calls. I cannot.
I also do not know how to put air in my tires at the gas station, and I feel that at 35, I'm also too old to not know how to do this, and therefore too old to ask. Whenever the low tire pressure light comes on I panic internally, tell myself I can do it and go to the gas station only to fumble around awkwardly, panic again and make a clean getaway away before anyone realizes that I'm incapable of this.
I love this post! This is so me! Can't someone else call in our take out order?
I admit: so many times I read your blog and I feel like I just don't fit in. But this –THIS– I too cannot bring myself to the Post Office. I recently got a new job and told my boss person that I cannot be expected to go to the Post Office. If something has to be sent, send it with someone else or take it yourself. (Yep, they still kept me. ?)
It's not just me. It's you too, and so many others. We must ban together and outlaw talking on the phone. It's horrific and really REALLY hard. Really.
Thank you.? Now I have more people with the same Adulting issues!
Oh Kristen, sometimes I feel like you understand me better than people who actually know me. It takes me months to work up the nerve to call for appointments, and my sweet neighbor cannot, for the life of her, figure out why I will only order pizza online. The phone is the worst! And don't even get me started on FaceTime…
Phone calls. Especially when I was younger. I remember crying and begging my mom not to make me call someone. I detested it. Texting would have made middle and high school a million times better.
My first couple of jobs required a lot of calls to people I didn't know and I would literally PRAY no one would pick up. Then I got my current job that requires a ton of phone calls, but to the same people everyday. People I never see! And somehow it's been a game changer. I'm a pro; I get high reviews and I don't mind it. When it comes to my cell phone though. Nope. I refuse to answer numbers I don't know.
So phone calls and the post office are two things I struggle with, but also going to the bank. Our bank finally gained the ability to deposit checks online, but until this month, I would hold onto checks for so long. I literally didn't cash some checks from both tutoring and from a family gift because I didn't make it to the bank and then felt like it had been too long when I found the checks again. Also- mailing out thank you notes. I write them, sometimes even address them, but fail at getting them all the way there.
I despise phone calls also. I can't return online purchases. Printing out the shipping label, putting item in box, adhering label, and mailing the item is just too overwhelming. I can email customer service but after that I tap out.
Returning books to the library. ..dropping things off at"goodwill" (Iin Australia we call it "the salvos")
Finally catching up on your blog, one month post baby and OMG I'm right there with you. Phone calls, going to the post office. I will throw one more thing out there – sending cards. I am the worst. Probably because it involves mailing them to begin with. I have had a stack of thank you cards in my purse for almost two months and I can't manage to find time to write them out. I'm the worst kind of person 🙂