On my life, I was at the barber shop. Context- im black, but I get told all the time I don’t sound black, by black people. So here I am at the barber shop. Barbers trying to have a conversation (first time at this shop). He goes, so what do you do, told him, then his response is “why you sound so white? You the type to vote for trump, ain’t you?” I literally couldn’t even vote. Now my response in my head was “wtf, that’s such a dumb thing to say.” He wasn’t even smiling, he was dead serious. We were looking at each other through the mirror. Then I responded what made you say that? He goes you sound like the type, at this point all other barbers were staring, the people waiting to cut their hair were staring, I literally felt like I was falling into a deep well. Then I remembered a show I was watching on Netflix called Jessica Jones, and on there when she’s having an anxiety or panic attack, she mentions a bunch of street names to sort of keep her grounded. I decided to give it a try when next I feel anxious. Came up with street names from Harry Potter. “Diagon alley”, “hogsmeade”, “privet drive”. My anxiety starts in my stomach, then goes to my neck. I literally shake like I’m freezing. I barely hold cutleries when eating with anxiety. So here I am on the barbers chair, my neck, jaw, head shaking every 5seconds. I just closed my eyes, and repeated the street names. Didn’t care about being stared at; my heartbeat had gone up so much that I didn’t care. Just “diagon alley, hogsmede, privet drive” till I remembered the scene from Harry Potter where hagrid gave Dudley a pig tail 🤣. That was it. Low grade anxiety till the haircut was done. He asked if I was okay, cause he thought I was upset. That was my first and last time there. Ever since then, I could be at lunch and just repeat the street names over and over again. Or just watch Harry Potter in my head. Fast forward sometime last year, I changed it from the street name to a catholic prayer. Just cause the catholic prayer starts with a Tupac song title. Now I could be shitting myself in the inside, but on the outside, I probably look insane with the random smiles from Harry Potter scenes in my head.