Random stuff that really worked: My mom made me volunteer at a nursing home in the summers when I was a teenager (lending new meaning to the word volunteer). It was her way of preventing me from sitting in front of the TV for three months. It also meant I got to interact with people in highly specific ways that I got trained in, so I got used to dealing with people in a relatively low-key way. Also, I was willing to put in extra effort to smile and make eye contact because the people I dealt with were nice people who had gotten a raw deal when their bodies wore out to an inconvenient extent while they still needed to use them. Its hard to try to be pleasant at school (aka The Home of Stress and Misery), but I didnt mind practicing good social behavior when there was no one picking on me (bullies apparently arent into summer volunteer work).
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 20:44:05 +0000