Drop the mic!

There was a period in my life when I spoke softly, with low volume, so I wouldn’t scare people. Let me explain. It was at puberty, when hair began to grow in hidden parts of the body, deodorant became a necessity, and when the child’s voice changed to that of a man, with a very serious and low tone. At that time, I would say hello when entering stores and the employees, sometimes distracted, jumped and said “Oh, my God”, scared as hell!

It’s just that a deep voice forces a person to speak more forcefully in order to be understood. Otherwise, you just hear a mumbling…

After some of these scary episodes I chose to speak more quietly, giving up to muttering, and limiting myself to waving to the shopkeepers.

However, I grew up, with no extra hair. And having had my professional life in radio and in voice-overs I stopped worrying about possible scares to other people. Whether you like it or not, and even if I wasn’t a voice professional in Portugal, I had to project my voice to be heard.

I recalled my youthful period of frightening shopkeepers due to a phone conversation. My wife was talking to a cousin with the loud speaker on the phone and I approached and greeted him with a jovial “yo!”. He reacted by saying “Oh, what was that?! For a moment I stopped listening to you, Ana! There was a loud and strange noise on the cell phone!”

I’m glad people are having videocalls more often. Maybe it’s best to resume greetings only with a wave of the hand.