I've always been very introverted. I was home-schooled and forced to move every three and a half years. I simply didn't learn how to interact with new people.
It's still an ongoing process, but there are some definite points I can look back on as greatly helping me to open up:
I eventually got tossed into a public school. What a traumatizing experience, but I was forced to interact with people.
I had to get my first job. Oh, no! I answered phones all day, and even occasionally cold-called people. There's nothing like doing...
And, yes, I found an excellent forum on something I was passionate about at the time. I was even a moderator there for about a year before I left. I think I can honestly say this helped me more than anything else. Why? Because in all the other situations, it was always something I feared, even dreaded, but was forced to do. In that forum, however, communication was the key to something I loved, and I loved it because of that.
I'm not all the way there, yet, but what seemed almost impossibly difficult before is routine today...
-- Daniel Terhorst
Last edited by Daniel Terhorst : 11-04-2006 at 08:39 PM.
Reason: A bit of clarification
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