Musings

I am more than what you see

 Please excuse the silence around here. I’ve been spending a lot of time with my cousins who where here in India for few days. Anyway, about two weeks back I watched Susan Cain’s Ted talk on the power of introverts and I felt someone has said stuff about that race of people to which I feel I belong. I was so overwhelmed after listening to this talk because it explained many of my eccentricities and it made my feel okay about them. It helped me understand myself in a positive way.

 For the longest time in my life, I’ve been around extroverts and I had a very different impression of them – I thought they are fun people, they like to mingle and move around in social situations, express themselves easily, more participative, more intelligent, in demand,  loveable and what not! And I, on the other hand – was very reserved in school, rarely use to raise my hand in class, was shy to talk to my classmates and teachers. And I am pretty sure it wasn’t some social thing happening just in school because I was  pretty much same at home with my family. It didn’t bother me at all till  my 7th grade, but then I changed my school in 8th grade and there  it was! Everything was new- school, teachers, friends and house – it was an eyeopener for me. As a student, teachers could see my potential, but I was not participative and interactive at all. But after 8 months or so – I could finally make few friends and it really helped me a lot to change and grow as a person.

 In school I was an introvert, but I somehow managed to do a little better and come under the ambivert category of people after many years. Going to college made a huge difference and it happened mostly because I was open to change – I wanted to let go off this hesitation within me and all I needed was people to support me and just be okay with me as I was. It helped really helped me to open up with people and express myself more. I am happy being an ambivert – I feel balanced and much more confident about myself.  There are a lot of things I hear about introverts and extroverts and none of them is completely true. It’s not true that extroverts are shallow or bad listeners and it’s not true either that introverts are sad or aren’t good public speakers!

I guess people should just be themselves and should be supported for what they are and what they want to be (be that introverts to extroverts and extroverts to introverts). Everyone should be allowed to be themselves without being judged.

xx

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