Social Skills: My Confessions

My disposition seems to fall into the "slow-to-warm-up" category.  I have some shy tendencies but when I'm with people and in a situation where a feel comfortable, most people are surprised to hear that I'm naturally shy.  Standing in front of a group with all eyes on me is not usually a situation where I am feeling in my element.  

Some advice that Professor Middleton gave yesterday that stood out to me is to just have a conversation with the audience. For some reason that perspective caused me to relax a little about the idea of public speaking.  We'll have to see if that will help me relax in the moment when my palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy (you gotta lose yourself in the music, the moment, you own it, you better never let it go...sorry...I digress).  Seriously, though, I shake so bad I''m afraid people think I'm having a seizure.  I just need to relax a little!

So anyway, the conversation thing is a good idea; however, I honestly don't feel I'm all that great at that, either!  I'm better than I used to be, but I think sometimes I'm too busy to make time for just casual conversation, or I'm too wrapped up in my own world to really make time to care about someone else's, or sometimes when there is a situation where I have plenty of time with someone then I overly worried about what we could possibly talk about for so long.

So what now?  I think just like we learned in class, that sometimes you have to rehearse your presentation many times to make it look unrehearsed, I might just need to make more time to practice my conversation skills.  Instead of shying away from the large group of people shooting the breeze at work, I can jump in and contribute.  Instead of working on homework at the beginning of class, I could chat with the classmate next to me.  I think I'm gonna do it.  At least for a little bit.