Ring Ring;

Any job that you have, if there is a phone nearby it is important that you answer it the minute that it starts ringing. In my case, the phone ringing is always a customer, and the customer is the most important...right?

I have an incredible fear of phones. I have gotten used to my own cell phone, but much of that comfort comes from having it for a long time, as well as caller i.d, which will always tell me who it is that is trying to get a hold of me. Most importantly, the majority of people who call me are aware of my fear, and they do everything in their power to never call me unless it is completely necessary. Unfortunately, there is no way to send out a memo for every customer of my bank to inform them that sometimes I am too scared of the phone to help them. You can't tell a customer to "text you instead", and most of them would prefer to get help immediately instead of being forced to leave a message and wait for an answer. So I live with this anxiety.

I was thinking about it today, and I realized that I was not always like this. Living at home, I had to answer the phone all the time. My parents are both almost completely deaf, so even if they did hear the phone, it is uncomfortable for them to actually talk on it because they have trouble hearing what is coming through the other end. It was my and my sister's job to answer the phone, take the message, and relay the information back to them. Living at home required the same telephone action that my job now desires, but over time I seem to have lost that skill. I moved out when I was eighteen, and at twenty-three I am unable to comfortably answer the phone without stuttering and sweating.

I don't know if realizing this will help me. I know that answering the phone at work is literally the easiest thing that I have to do, besides being extremely important and necessary. I hope that over time I will find the same amount of comfort that I had when I was living at home. But who knows?

Without all of that practice, I guess I have gotten a bit rusty.