Is everything OK? Do you need anything?

The auto repair shop is a great place to get some good thinking done. The only other location that would even come close to competing with the waiting room of a repair shop is the bathroom. I find I do some of my best thinking in both places. Maybe that’s because I’m virtually shut off from the rest of the world. A repair shop is usually filled with other people waiting for their vehicles but they’re not exactly the kind of folks that I want to engage in conversation. If you’re sitting at a repair shop it usually means that something is wrong with your car and that does not a happy person make. I think I’d rather talk to someone at the DMV.

This particular waiting room is stocked to the ceiling with a variety of magazines. Oddly enough, they’re all women oriented. I see Working Mother, Better Homes, Ladies Home Journal and OK! Just to name a few. To be fair, there are a few ESPN magazines but there is definitely a female trend here. I wonder why that is. I usually see more men at a repair shop than I do women. Do women get bored easier at the repair shop? Are they more upset than men are and they need to learn about the 47 things he finds sexy about their toe nails? Am I putting way too much thought into this? That is a definite yes.

One of the magazines is open and something catches my eye. It’s a list of a few traits that women say they really like about men. They look at our eyes, smile and physique but the biggest thing is confidence. That gets me thinking. Where do we get our confidence? A co-worker of mine recently told me that I was very confident in myself. That caught me a little off guard because at the time I was analyzing a conversation that I had just finished with a girl that I’m interested in. Needless to say, it’s a good thing that analysis was happening in my head because it probably would have driven any normal human being to the loony bin.

I wondered why she thought I was confident so I asked her to elaborate. She said I understood who I was and I didn’t talk down about myself or praise myself. That’s a pretty fair assessment. I’ve always been a larger person through life. I’m not obese, and never have been, but I could always benefit from losing some weight. The best comparison would be someone like Jack Black. Sure he’s got a few extra pounds on him but he’s not disgustingly overweight either. ANYWAY, just like most chubby kids who get caught shopping in the “Husky” section, I took my fair share of abuse growing up. I was at an advantage because I played sports and was friends with most of those giving the abuse. It could have been much worse. Contrary to what you may find on Oprah or Dr. Phil, going through situations like that makes a person stronger. That could be where some of my confidence comes from.

I’m definitely confident about my knowledge. I was always near the top of my class in school. That kind of thing can be a blessing and a curse. For me it was neither. I was relatively quiet and reserved until mid way through my sophomore year. I sat in the back of the class and only did the bare minimum of class participation. I am not always right in an argument but I can always come up with enough facts to at least make it appear that I know what I’m talking about. That is something that I am definitely confident in.

Now that I think about it, the only thing where I really lack confidence is dating. Don’t take the wrong way. I have no issue talking to anyone. I could start up a conversation with a rock if I really needed to, although I think it would be quite one sided (Zing!). It’s not the women that make me second guess myself all the time. It’s the situation. There are too many unwritten rules to dating and I find myself always wondering if I’m breaking any of them. Am I coming on too strong? Do I go in for the kiss? Is this even a date? It’s amazing that anyone starts a relationship when you’ve got all these things running around inside your head. Then again, I’ve been single for about three and a half years so what do I know?

As defined by Webster’s Dictionary, confidence is “A feeling or consciousness of one’s powers or of reliance on one’s circumstances.” It is also defined as “faith or belief that one will act in a right, proper, or effective way.” I think that I meet the criteria so I guess I’m a confident person. Even though that last sentence was not very confident. I need to cut out the phrase “I guess” from my vocabulary now that I’ve become such a confident person.