Selfish

After twenty-something years of existence, I’ve learned a few things about being human.  One idea that comes to mind is that I think almost all people are selfish. I worked a handful of jobs, and I’ve built thicker skin from dealing with people’s problems.  That’s at least how I viewed customer service"fixing people’s problems.  As the years went by, I grew more unsympathetic towards the people who came to my window, or my cashier, or my teller station.  Not because their problems were difficult for me to solve, but because the customers’ problem’s were more so products of the customer’s own lack of mental resourcefulness.  Misunderstanding usually doesn’t pave the way for some open-minded behavior.  Usually people who didn’t listen the first time will be reluctant to listen the second time around.  With this kind of redundant workload, I feel the worst mistake a customer service representative can do is take their work personally.  People are willing to paint their shortcomings as anything but a product of their own misunderstandings"so I didn’t expect to be dealing with bright bulbs on a day-to-day basis.  One of these people called my job, and my co-worker answered.  From what I could hear, it didn’t sound like the customer was painting a good picture.  To put it into a simple metaphor, it sounded like this person was trying to turn on their TV with a Zune.  What they wanted to do was simply not in the realm of coherent thought.  After my co-worker did her best to handle the situation, the customer expectedly got hostile, and my co-worker did her best to keep her composure.  Situations like this happen a lot in customer service"people trying to find a solution to a grotesquely communicated issue"and it takes some willpower to brush it off and not let that customer bite into your emotions.  My co-worker took it the wrong way, she stood tense and defensive, and after the call ended, she vented her frustration to our supervisor.  To me, venting is a double-edge sword.  Venting can relieve stress and help someone digest the situation, but it keeps that s**t memory in the mental inbox.  With every word she spoke, she relived the scenario, which meant she perpetuated the frustration and anger.  She went on a break, and that customer was still on her mind, and she wondered if she could have handled it differently.  She went home, and she medicated herself.  She wanted to forget, but she was so used to self-deprecation that it became her sixth sense.  I don’t feel sorry for her, she chose to keep this moment in her mind.  She chose to medicate with alcohol and negative self-talk.  She is an expert at being numb.  She doesn’t relieve the stress with constructive remedies like exercise or creative expression.  She turns to what she has always known"depressants.  Just like that customer, she will project her shortcomings onto other people.  Her presence will be felt with misplaced pity, and she will suck the energy from anyone who will listen to her regurgitate her sob stories.  Her legacy is defined by all of the mistakes she has made, as well as all of the mistakes people have made about her.  She won’t realize the power of believing in herself, and she will become paralyzed to any true source of love and passion.  After working in these types of environments, I’ve realized that I don’t care for this sort of people, and in turn they don’t care for me.  Why should I let the words of the weak affect how I see myself?  I would be doing myself a disservice by taking someone else’s words as a reflection of my value.  People are selfish"which means that I’m selfish.  I just hope to be selfish in the right way.  I’m not going to rob your house, pretend to be nice so that you’ll like me, or try to get you to buy into an over hyped product.  I don’t need to waste time with empty-minded people, blow my money on garbage, and be content being someone else’s b***h.  I want to actualize my dreams, by ensuring that the time I invest in myself today will return as an advantage for tomorrow.