“Why are you so quiet?”
Because I live everyday-life like this. Fear. Apprehension. Avoidance. Fear that I might say something wrong. I’m worrying about others’ disapproval. I’m afraid of rejection, of not fitting in. I’m anxious to enter the conversation, but I’m afraid I won’t have anything to say. I hide what’s wrong with me deep inside, by putting up a defensive wall. I’m very awkward meeting new people. I’m not rude, I just don’t want to embarrass myself so I keep quiet.
Very few people understand the agonizing and traumatic depth of social anxiety. I try to hide it from people, as if they don’t notice me biting my finger nails or desperately checking my phone. It’s an overwhelming and anxious feeling in my stomach. I can hear my heart beating fast. I’m shaking, I’m sweating and I’m not sure what my next move should be. My world is spinning around me and I feel as if it will crash down around me at any moment. And I can’t help this feeling. I cannot control it at all. I wish I could turn it off. I wish I could turn my brain off or all the overthinking I do on the slightest of things that can trigger me at anytime.
I’ll wait hours to use the bathroom because if I get up during class everyone will look at me. I’d like to go get another drink but I’ll wait until someone else gets up first. It’s little things like this that make my days so difficult. Why can’t I just get up and go to the bathroom? It isn’t like I’m the only person in the world who uses one. Nobody even cares that I’m going.
Public speaking is my worst enemy. Presenting a project or giving a speech makes my stomach turn in ways I can’t describe. Standing in front of a room of people, all eyes on me? NOPE. Not exactly what I like. If I talk too fast they won’t be able to understand me. If I talk too slow they will think I don’t know what I’m doing. Can they even hear me? Or am I too loud? Is my face red? Yeah, it is I can feel it. JUST GET ME OUT OF HERE, I AM SUCH A FOOL.
People wonder why I’m so quiet or awkward. Maybe I just feel that no matter what I say, you’re going to judge me. I’m sorry I can’t make eye contact when we talk. I get nervous and forget my words when I make eye contact. Or maybe I just don’t want to watch you see me struggle to find the right words to say. Your face confused because I keep studdering and frequently pausing and saying “uhm” I between every word.
I’m sorry I can’t come to your party. I don’t know anyone else going and I’ll end up standing by myself. And I cannot follow you around the whole time because then I’ll draw attention to myself and people will think I’m weird . Sometimes it’s difficult meeting new people. Crowds of people make me nervous. I’m just so scared that I’ll embarrass myself somehow. I always have these thoughts running through my head and I can’t control it.
If I say the wrong thing they’ll judge me.
They’ll think I’m weird.
I don’t fit in here.
I love this song! No, don’t sing it you’ll look stupid.
I look stupid.
It’s a feeling that consumes you and it doesn’t go away. It’s a paralyzing fear of being judged or embarrassed in front of others and it’s making it difficult to lead the life I want. Don’t get me wrong, I have lots of friends. I can be myself sometimes. A lot of the time I hold back. I’d like to tell that funny joke I saw online, but when I go to tell it I’ll get nervous because everyone’s looking at me. I’ll studder or forget what I was going to say.
To everyone I know, and everyone I’m going to meet:
I’m sorry. I can’t help what’s going through my head so just bare with me. I’m actually very funny when I can remember the joke. I do want to be apart of your conversation. I can actually speak without studdering And don’t think I’m weird.
Anxiety is what I have. Not who I am. I promise.
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a commonly-occurring chemical compound that takes the form of a colorless liquid; it essentially looks like water. It is used commonly as an oxidizer, bleaching agent and disinfectant. Because of its various purposes, it can be found in a distilled liquid form in many households. Conveniently, then, hydrogen peroxide has many more home uses than this. Let’s take a look at a few reasons why hydrogen peroxide is a home necessity.
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One excellent use is to disinfect small wounds. Imagine your child comes in from playing, having sustained a few small scratches. You don’t have any solution on hand but you do have a nice big bottle of hydrogen peroxide. All you gotta do is sprinkle some of this hydrogen sauce on that wound and your kid’ll be more disinfected than a geriatric ward. Heck, you’ll never have to bathe the little tyrants again!
entirelypets.com
Situation: you’re going through a rough time and want to reinvent yourself to look like Boo Radley from To Kill a Mockingbird. Why go out to the beauty store and have to drop your hard-earned cash on specific hair bleach when you can just dip your scalp in this sweet, potent chemical juice. It’s also more gentle than household bleach, but don’t use it for mixing drinks quite yet people.
theayurveda.org
I’m sure we’ve all been there. You’re about to go out for a night on the town with the lads but your chompers look like you’ve been getting curb-stomped out in the pasture. I’m talking brown all the way to the gums. Yuck! You can’t go anywhere with the boys looking like you got a mouth full of candy bars, so you just pour your trusty jug of hydrogen peroxide in a bowl and mix it with some baking soda to make a homemade toothpaste of sorts.
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Don’t even have that kind of time on your hands? Well you can always just go full Heathers on that bad boy and swirl some around in your mouth to not only whiten those bad teeth up but also kill the germs that cause bad breath. Because there’s nothing like replacing the smell of normal bad breath with a storebought chemical.
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Toothbrush looking like a garden hoe? Never to fear, hydrogen peroxide is here! Simply soak those beautiful brushes in the ol’ HP (that’s hydrogen peroxide, for short) and they’ll be looking good as new. It also helps save money on toothbrushes, which can honestly be pretty expensive. Compare that to the price of a bottle of HP that’s a couple bucks and you’re living.
It’s the holidays which inevitably means that there will be baking in the next few weeks. While some people can go onto Pinterest and find the cutest ideas to copy flawlessly, others aren’t quite Martha Stewart. Here are some photos to make you feel better if you’re getting frustrated with your holiday baking. Or just to let you know you’re not alone.
11. I don’t think Rudolph was meant to look quite so scary.
10. Frosty the Snowman must have melted.
9. They’re supposed to be abstract mittens.
8. I can totally see the resemblance.
7. Well thats… unfortunate.
6. Swirl cookies that probably took way too long to come out like this.
5. So really festive holiday sweater blobs.
4. Not sure if this is safe to live in.
3. We’ve all seen this little Santa guys before.
2. Yeah lets just stop with trying to make the strawberries festive.
1. Honestly I think snowmen should be left to the professionals.
On Tuesday, Donald Trump shocked pollsters, the country, and the world when he won the presidential election over Hillary Clinton. Since then, protests have broken out across the country and many find themselves in panic, if not at least concerned. The prospect of a President Trump seems (and likely will be) problematic, but we have reason to find hope as well as to look forward.
Here are six reasons we can survive a term of “President Trump”:
Though it seems like a distant memory, George “Dubya” Bush did sit in the Oval Office not too long ago. After winning in 2000, Bush started two wars he forgot to pay for. He fumbled on responding to Hurricane Katrina. He ushered in and worsened the Great Recession.
Since then, the economy stabilized. The unemployment rate dropped below 5% and job numbers recovered over the last eight years. The point being: no matter how bad one president screws up, it can be reversed.
Roe v. Wade survived Bush’s eight years, despite his fervent opposition to abortion. His support for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage also didn’t make such a change a reality. As it stands right now, Trump would have to make multiple appointments to the Supreme Court — not just one. And even if that were to happen, the Court would need significant reason to revisit the issues. They simply can’t decide to go back on past rulings “just because.”
Trump’s website no longer brandishes his controversial call to ban all Muslims from entering the US. If Trump’s willing to go back on that promise 24 hours after winning the election, he’ll probably cave on much more when sitting in the Oval Office. Especially when the reality of being President finally sets in on him. Not to mention when he realizes how impractical some of his proposals really are.
60 is the magic number when it comes to the Senate. Obamacare narrowly passed only because Democrats had 60 Senators back in 2009. Republicans will have far short of that going into 2017. Which means that even if Trump has every Republican senator on his side, his proposals won’t go anywhere without some approval from Democrats. Which brings us to the next point:
Since Mexico maintains that they won’t pay for a wall, such an expense would fall to our own country. It would take billions of dollars to build a wall and deport millions of immigrants. The idea doesn’t strike the fancy of fiscal conservatives or small-government types who abhor statism or Constitutional violations. Yes, some of his biggest opponents congratulated him on his win. But complimenting someone’s achievement widely differs from supporting that person’s proposals. Especially when those proposals violate the Constitution you claim to love and worship. Even Trump’s own VP has disavowed some of his policies.
Trump constantly complained that Hillary had nothing to show for her “30 years” in public service. What Trump didn’t understand is that a seat in the Senate (or even the White House) doesn’t mean you get to do everything you want. But he will understand this pretty soon.
Even with GOP majorities in the Senate and House, Congress will still serve as a check. The Supreme Court (even with a Scalia replacement by Trump) will still serve as a check. The Constitution will sure as hell serve as a check. To boot, Trump could even be impeached before 2020 — which, looking at his ongoing lawsuits and controversies, has been a widely-discussed possibility as of late.
