Being an introvert is something I've had to learn to comprehend over the span of my short time on this planet. Although I feel like I've been like this my whole life, it took me a while to fully comprehend what it meant to be this way, and how to cope and adapt to any situation that might make me uncomfortable given the way that I am.

For those who don't already know, an introvert tends to keep to themselves, not really striving to go out of their comfort zone. When I was a child in elementary school, I had a small group of friends, and didn't really to attempt to extend it any farther than that. I was comfortable with the friends I had, and that was okay. As I grew up, I basically followed the same idea, only keeping a few close friends and not really making an attempt to make new ones. Now that I'm an adult, I have about 3-5 friends I would consider "close" and I'm still perfectly content with that. I struggle to make conversation with people I don't already know, and being put in positions of large groups of people with forced interaction makes me uncomfortable.

Although being an introvert typically holds a negative connotation, I've learned to find joy in some of the things that make me who I am, and I also have learned to adapt to uncomfortable situations. One job you would not expect an introvert to have is a front desk receptionist, where you constantly have to interact with people you don't know, and act like you're completely comfortable with it. At first, it was fairly difficult for me to fit in this position, but over time I've become adapted to saying hello to people I've never met, and who most likely won't say hello back. In addition, this job has helped me learned that I need to speak up when I talk, because even to people I'm comfortable with I sometimes can't be heard when I want to speak.

Being an introvert, I'm used to keeping a lot of my feelings and emotions to myself. Although some people might see this as something that will negatively affect me (which to a degree is true but I'll get to that later) I don't completely let everything bottle up. I let it out in the form of writing and drawing instead of lashing out in anger or sadness. I've been dating someone over the past 5 months that is the complete opposite of who I am: a positive extrovert who has no problem talking to anyone. Doing that has helped me learn that I can open up to someone, even if it means getting angry if I have to because it could result in me letting things build up until it all explodes at once, which is much worse.

So overall, although being an introvert has inhibited me from a lot of things, I've learned to trust the right people and in doing that, I've learned to step out of my comfort zone for certain things, and that has helped both me and the people around me.