I’ve lived many lives in my almost five decades on this Earth. In one of my lives, I was so quiet that I could barely speak in public. Looking people in the eye was out of the question. Many of the things I wanted felt like they were beyond my reach.
At the time, that was a life of embarrassment and despair. However, I’ve come to think of those years with a certain fondness. I’m hesitant to say that shyness is something I’ve “overcome,” because that implies there’s something wrong with how I felt. I didn’t “overcome” those feelings because those feelings haven’t gone away.