Wow, where do I begin?

Hello, world. I'm 20 years old. I'm a student, a lacrosse player, a daughter, a sister, a teammate, a friend to some and a former "shy-guy". Well, currently easing my way out, actually. I suppose I should explain what I mean by "shy-guy." Do I mean the little red Super Mario character that runs around with a mask on? No, but that would be pretty awesome. For the purposes of this mini article, being a "shy-guy" will refer to being simply introverted. I use the character Shy Guy because it simply fits.

Being a shy person comes from being just myself. If you know me, I'm quite the awkward person to be around. Let me explain. My brain has a hard time catching up with my spoken words, so most of the time I speak absolute gibberish or something completely wrong. People usually catch my mistakes and tell me or sometimes make fun of me for it, but I know that it is harmless...most of the time. Over the years, I've learned to take those comments and just let them roll over my shoulder, laugh with them or get really verbally aggressive. I know I shouldn't do the latter, but the reactions are always priceless.

I suppose my shyness really peaked when I switched schools for middle school. I was really quiet as a kid growing up, not really talking to adults and staying close to family. I was getting better at my first middle school because I was with other kids with learning disabilities, but I was still fairly quiet when it came to class. This "new school," which won't be named, definitely caused problems. It was academically rigorous, but socially rigorous for me as well. A lot of people made fun of me for the way I formed sentences, how I dressed and even where I came from. It honestly made me such a loner to the point where I only had one friend. I couldn't be myself because it wasn't socially acceptable at this school. So what did I do? Well, I turned to writing.

Writing proved to be one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me. What do I write about? Well, I've never been all that comfortable telling, and only a few people know. However, I am very creative, I would like to say. Over the years, I've gotten better. Grammatically, I'll probably never be there, but I feel like I have mastered writing the overall concept and picture. As sad as this might sound, I'm better at writing what I want to say than speaking it. I type faster than I talk. That's perfectly fine for me, though, because I feel like I can be more creative with my written words. In a sense, I enjoy painting a picture through type than speaking the basics.

Over the years, I've gotten better at speaking. It took until the end of junior year of high school to find people who were perfectly okay with me being me. These people are still my closest friends today. Unknowingly, they have helped boost my confidence to the point where it could allow me to defend myself throughout high school. This only grew when I entered college. Now, with half of my sophomore year completed, I can say that I have never been more happier in my life than I am right now. I'm socializing willingly, and I'm completely myself around people.

So why use a Shy Guy to describe myself? Well, I would normally use a potato but that doesn't make sense for the purposes of this article. A Shy Guy is a character from the Super Mario franchise that always wears a mask. They're timid and wear masks due to their shyness. I wasn't myself throughout middle school and half of high school. You could say that I hid myself, theoretically, through a mask.

Let me re-introduce myself. Hello world, I am humorous, responsible (sometimes), hardworking, aggressive, creative, protective, happy and free.