Everyone has different characters, or roles, they play throughout their life. A few people may view an individual one way but seen completely different by another. The characters are not secret identities but rather an adaption to environment. When a person is in one setting, they tend to choose what character properly fits their surroundings. I will describe the main characters, or roles, I play in my life.
The Friend
When I am with my friends, I tend to be talkative and humorous, which is activated by the level of comfort. I let loose, from my words of choice, to the clothes I wear. I’ll use language I don’t normally use unless in that environment. When I am, the friend, I’ll say obscene words or share dirty jokes. My friendships are not just how comfortable I am to be myself but how comfortable I make others around me.
I do not like to gossip or share rumors. I listen intently, to any friend, who has a problem they need to share. Because of those actions, my friends see me as honest and caring. I’m seen as the person they can take advice from and a mediator. If there is a feud between two friends, I will be the person who gets put in the middle.
Most of our time is spent laughing and joking around. Everybody will come over to the house or meet at a bar. If it’s Sunday, the day is usually spent with our eyes glued to the television, while arguing whose football team is the best. We tend to make fun of each other but not in a malicious manner. It is a way of bonding, sounds crazy, but it does bring us closer together.
As time passes, the amount availability my friends have, tend to diminish. It isn’t because we do not care for our relationships or we are growing apart. They too, have other roles to play. We all grow with more and more responsibility thrown on us. The friends I did have become married, have children, or work eighty hour work weeks. It is hard to connect as much as we used to. This does give all of us different perspective and experience to provide each other.
The Worker
My friend role is the complete opposite of my professional role. When working in an office environment, I become a person who is aware of others perspective. I wear clothes that show me off as sophisticated. While making sure that everybody receives terms of respect, such as, Sir or Mam. Even my posture becomes different around co-workers. It is in this role that I create a version of me, whom is at his best.
The office environment creates a version of me that will not want to offend anyone. The business I do is collections, which has a bad reputation. This makes my choice of words, carefully elected. Every response will be paired with eye contact and a head held high. Any humor used as a professional is sure to be properly toned. There is absolutely no vulgar language used.
My attire is entirely professional. I will wear a tie, slacks, and a dress shirt. Every piece of clothing will be neatly pressed. During the winter days, my clothes will be paired with a proper suit jacket. The attire must match and make me presentable to any clients, subordinates, or executives. The clothes I wear are complete opposite of what I wear in my other roles of life.
In the business I work, all my duties are made through the telephone and the goal is to collect on student loans for the client, Department of Education. As popular belief has, debt collectors tend to be frowned upon. They are not accepted by others with friendly voices and majority of our time is filled with negative feedback. We still must listen to customers and help find a sort of resolution to their debts.
The people we deal with are very sensitive. Nobody wants to talk about their debt. So my approach isn’t to make them feel bad about their burden. I choose to pick positive
