Keep Calm and HOWL On: Peopling [People Points!]

 

Peopling. What is it even. Why do we have to do it? Is it because we're still innately pack/herd animals that just need to know we exist by confirming with another sentient, similar life being? Is it because we know it's a means to an end when there's a need needing to be met? Is it from sheer boredom in an otherwise neutrally peaceful life should you just choose to go off the grid and hermit out. I mean, if you have the money (or, not-money?) to do it in the first place. Either way, it's an odd experience to me, and I wonder how it works for others too.

Even though I was around a lot of different people and their different peopling traits, I still always found it awkward to try and "assimilate," er, I mean... "Fit in." I am weird. I am weird, and I am different. I can get along with nearly anybody, and yet I always felt so uneasy when even a part of a person seemed to counteract things I could see as "good" in my life. And yet, I still try with the same level of hopeful wonder, that whenever I do interact with a person out of my own accord it'd be in a mutual interest and genuinely felt excitement on being around me as well. 

My intentions are simple - can we have a mutually benefitting friendship, or nah? I am an empath and I can feel things that I don't even find words for some times. I can get stuck in a reverie sometimes with just the feelings that can be emitted from a person or a situation, and with that I tend to go down the rabbit hole and if the interest hits me, I can absorb as much information as it's given out. Peopling is a lot to me, and it takes a lot out of me. That's not to say I can't find the stamina or dedication to keep up with something or someone as long as there's interest. I can stay up for days on end reading a webcomic backwards just because the most recent page interested me and I now NEED to know the deets.

Peopling is. So. Much. Damn. WORK!!! How do humans even do that on like a regular basis and LIKE it? I'm not saying it's not fun when you have the right person to be around, but clearly that's not the every day. Unless you get blessed to live with your loves and never ever leave the place again, it ain't happenin'. I tell everyone I have people points and they vary for the day - sometimes it's plenty and I'm a literal social butterfly and talking to everyone just to say hi. Other -- MOST days -- it's a veil of "leave me alone don't acknowledge my presence, please. PLEASE. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE." And in those days the trembles get me something fierce. I can't consciously make the effort to people when my peopling body is malfunctioning.

Yet it's well known with those that know of me that I'm actually VERY good at peopling. Like... Too good. So good that people can occasionally ask me for the tips on the peopling. And how to people with the people that they like but aren't treating them the best. And how to people when a parent doesn't understand where they're coming from and they're contemplating something rash. And how to people when the job is stressful and it seems that no one wants to lend an ear but you, the closest body. And how to people when the method of action hasn't worked and won't work no matter how many times you try that route, KATHY. (Kathy's don't sneeze, please. Bless you.)

My point is - I've never felt too associated with people, as you can guess with the Lady Wolf moniker. I always felt fascinated with non-human animals and how cool and structured many of their lives are. Wolves for me are my top animal for a dissertation of reasons (maybe later?) and will always be the creature I like to associate myself with. Good and bad, I'm a wolf. Not a people. Don't make me poeople.

Yet I, like other real people living real lives, have to continue in the world of peopling. Peopling is my job - I people to help truckers get tires repaired/replaced currently. I have to talk to people on a daily basis and it's not of my own choice or free will on WHO I get to talk to and WHAT I  get to talk about in any time of the matter. It's "Hey! You need tire? I help. I get info. I type it up and get you help!" and that itself is simple enough, but when would it ever be that simple. Situations, people, events, reasons... There's way too many bits and pieces that make up the amalgamation that is whatever the current scenario offers. And you never get a second to wrap your head around it. It goes, you hear the beep and there's your caller. No ringing, no sharp inhale to gather yourself, no time. It's customer service mode now. You don't know what they're calling about, but it's up to you to make the first move and figure it out!

Did I mention I'm non-confrontational? The sheer thought of having to deal with something conflicting makes this Lady Wolf the most frazzled. Peopleling is hard, what's better to accomplish it than with negative stat effects like NAUSEA! JITTERS! STAMMERING! INNER SENSE OF SWARM OF BEES! 

I hate hate hate it, and yet here I am, making my money off of it.

Why? because we HAVE to people. For whatever reason, it's just how it is. We live with way too many of them, and we don't individually have enough to run to the forest at a moment's inconvenience, nor do we have the skills to take on an ACTUAL REAL LIFE WOLF. BACK UP IT'S NOT A PUPPY.

I people because I have to. I people because I want to, especially with my family and friends. I people because it helps, and at the end of it all... I just like helping people sometimes.