Rant: everyone says the smile gets easier, but mine got harder after month 7
I work retail at a home goods store in Sacramento and for 7 months I did the whole customer service smile, the one where your cheeks ache by 5pm and you rehearse your voice in the car. What nobody warned me about is that the longer you fake it, the harder it gets to drop the mask when you get home, so by month 7 I was still smiling at my own kitchen cabinets. My roommate finally asked why I looked happy while crying over burnt pasta and I couldn't even explain it. Does the mask ever come off on its own, or do you have to practice taking it off too?