i'm not tristan tzara.

i have been interviewed what seems to be quite a bit lately and i've noticed i'm not very good at it. really, i'm not very good at public speaking. i'm a pretty quiet person unless i'm ranting or joking about something that annoys me. or if i've been drinking. the very thought of being interviewed makes me stutter and sweat. i often have a difficult time answering questions because i don't know how to relate to them. how do you answer questions you can't relate to?

(this may or may not be a good time to mention that in high school i went to speech class once and never returned. i almost flunked a grade because the thought of setting foot in that room again and delivering (gulp) a speech was so unbearable. i successfully graduated high school without learning how to speak publicly. and now i need it!)

i was recently asked about crafting and it's relation to female empowerment. i had never thought about it. i like to make stuff. i'm just a girl (cripes, i mean woman!) in a little room making stuff. i can identify with how it has empowered me personally but i can't take it to the broader scope of womankind.
another interviewer asked me what the mission of my store is. um... aorta's mission... i dunno?... i suppose i have a mission. i'm a woman on a mission. a mission to be me, do what i want and make a living at it. my mission is to express myself creatively and succeed. but i never really thought of that as a mission.

i'm not trying to look a gift interview in the mouth or say these are bad questions, just ones that never occurred to me so i don't know how to approach them. part of my problem is that i need to come out of my shell more and be myself in interviews rather than try to say what i think they want to hear or search for the smartest answer. it's an honest struggle for me. what i really want is to answer like a dadaist.
"what's aorta's mission?"
"fish."

but i suppose i would never get another interview again.