Improved Confidence- November

I've decided that I'm going to make monthly posts up until I go to university (and possibly even beyond then) where I keep track of everything I've done in the month that has gone towards improving my confidence. These things would usually be stuff I wouldn't have normally done, but could also include things that made me feel much happier and gave me a better perspective on life. This will hopefully help me achieve my aim of improving my confidence over my gap year. These are the things I've done over November:

• Successfully reapplied to university and managed my online application without getting stressed.
• Began the activities I said I would (art, playing guitar, reading, cooking)
• Started this blog
• Looked into doing some unpaid work at a school
• Started applying for jobs
• Made contact with and visited a friend
• Got contacted by another friend 
• Attended a recruitment day in a different town, dealt with the rejection well and learned from the experience
• Attended an interview the day after the awful recruitment day in the same town

I've bolded one of my points because I feel that this was a real breakthrough for me confidence wise, and because of this I wanted to discuss it in more detail. When applying jobs I was contacted to say that one brand were having a recruitment day that I could attend. After debating whether I did actually want to attend I remembered that part of plan for coming back was to make the most of every opportunity I could get, and this included going to this recruitment day. The fact that it was in another town and I would have to get the train there made it even more challenging, but I decided to take it on. This was part of my plan, to push myself and to go beyond my comfort zone in order to improve my confidence. I arrived early and sat in McDonalds eating some cheap porridge and reading (I only went early so I could get a lift to the station). When the time came I plucked up the courage to enter the store it was held at. I won't go into to much detail about the actual process- it wasn't pleasant and is not something that I particularly want to remember. My lack of knowledge of the company (a make up and, apparently, skin care company) was completely embarrassing. This was the basis of my rejection, which seemed fair enough, though I have to add that I was really proud of the way I managed the handing out leaflets task- most people actually took one! However, I didn't like the woman's attitude, she was completely devoid of any warmth and relatively snobbish, though she had no reason to be. This made the rejection a bit harder to bear. It was my behaviour afterwards, however, that I'm most proud of. Instead of letting it get to me and rushing on the first train home, I picked myself up and took myself round town asking about vacancies and distributing CVs. This definitely had a great impact on my confidence, and it cheered me up to since most of the people I encountered were pretty nice and friendly. Even though it was a terrible experience in hindsight I realise that I got a lot out of it and discovered that I was capable of far more than I thought I was, and it helped eradicate a large portion of the anxiousness I had been feeling since I'd come back. Also, the town had all its Christmas decorations up, which was very pretty.

I think this month has been quite productive considering it's been my first month back and I have struggled with my emotions since coming back. I'm really pleased.