I’ve always been an independent loner. One of those people who prefers to spend my time learning something new on my own over spending time out partying with friends.
The kind of person who absolutely hates the cultural norms that expect, for example, servers to check on the table every ten minutes or salespeople to constantly ask if I need help.
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That’s not “providing good service” to me — it’s just annoying.
I’m browsing and if I need help, I will find someone. So stop hovering and go fold some sweaters or something.
It’s not so much that I hate people.
It’s more that I prefer to engage with people on my own terms.
And sometimes, that means not engaging at all.
I don’t actually like that being the person with headphones in at the store makes me seem “rude.”
However, being able to block out the noise of a busy shop, subtly signal to staff that no, I don’t need help, *and* catch-up on my podcast listening?
That’s just too efficient to worry about how I come across to strangers at the supermarket.
But I worry about how things might change as I get older and more and more people just assume I might need help. I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle that.