Rakstars, what is scarier going for a job interview or posting pictures on social media for the whole world to see? 

A job interview is nothing like presenting a project to your school mates. It is life or death. The moment you wake up, hesitate each and every single thought you have in your head. Second guess your outfit that you chose, hate your skin because it’s not glowing and self-talk yourself down. You anticipate, deliberate and mediate. The world is turned upside down. Why? Because you want the job, you want to be that person. That person whose dreams come true. Could this actually be your dream job or is it a stepping stone to what you actually want? Either way anxiety fills in, you can’t breathe and on top of it all – the interviewers scare the heck out of you. Some are friendly but you can’t help to notice they are too friendly – are they waiting for you to fail, choke up or cough up? What about the rude ones? They think that they are better than their whole team, sneering at you the whole time, like a ghoul or a reptile? They want you to go red in the face, feel incompetent and hate yourself. What about the dreaded question, the one that is so important yet the most awkward? Salary! 

In a world of people, who strive to do their very best. Job hunting and job searching are stressful. When you get the call for the interview, your heart races. The day of the interview – you can’t breathe. When you get the call to determine if you made it or not – or they will just ghost you – you feel like a failure. What is it with job interviews? Can’t we make them fun. 

Sure we can. Rakstars, at the end of the day, job interviews don’t have to be scary. They are scary because we make them scary. Our perceptions, movie scenes and talks with other people – are dramatized. If you live in a world where job interviews are like going to the candy store – do you feel a sense of relief? Do you feel better and happier to go? If only it was that easy. 

Posting pictures on social media for the whole world to see is something of scariness. Yes, it’s scary to post a picture because we are self-obsessed with ourselves. How many likes, hearts, follows and reposts? Who knew statistics became everyone’s new math. You take a picture, you look at it and you hate it, You take another one and another one – only to critique every part of yourself and not the background. Then eventually, you blame it on poor lighting, stick a filter and you are ready to post. But before you post, your heart races, anxiety fills your lungs and now you anticipate, deliberate and meditate. The world is turned upside down. Why? Because you want the picture to do well, you want to be that person. That person who has a cool instagram account. 

Can a picture not do well? You know what we mean. Then you wait for those hate comments to soar in like a boxing day rush. You are scared to read what people are saying about you. You don’t know them but yet they believe they know you incredibly well. It hurts, not going to lie. 

When you post the picture – your heart races, when people comment – you can’t breathe. When you see the hate comments from strangers saying random hurtful things which are not true but yet those words are published on their account directed at you, like an arrow – you feel like a failure. What is it with social media? Can’t we make them fun. 

People can bring us down, people can control our lives – whether we get the job or whether we get the like. But that’s just one side of our brain thinking. What about the other side? If we don’t get the job, it wasn’t meant for us. It’s not the end of the world, we have better things to do with our lives, different directions we want to go and taller heights to reach. So what if people hate our picture, do we like it ourselves? Of course we did. We posted it because we were happy with it. If people don’t see it the way we see it, then it’s on them, not on you. Liking the picture yourself is the real prize, not that others like it or not. 

Practicing failure is the ultimate tool, but in order to practice it – you must experience and experience is the greatest teacher. 

But when we don’t have the opportunity to practice, there are other ways to solve through the scariness of the world.