In case you haven't caught on, I'm a bit of a quiet person. Well, I am in real life. The version of me that puts bits and pieces of my life out there for you to read is only comfortable doing so because I don't have to verbalize any of it. I find it much easier to give my entire life's story in a blog post than to actually tell someone about myself.

After a while of getting to know people and getting comfortable, I actually tend to talk a lot. About a lot of things that no one actually cares about to be quite honest. But once I get started it's hard for me to stop.

I'm not sure when, how, or why that change suddenly happens, but it does, so I just roll with it. While I understand that sometimes my initial cripplingly shy, socially anxious nature can be incredibly frustrating for me and others, there's actually quite a few advantages.

1. I learn more by watching body language.

In my years of being cripplingly shy, I have discovered a few things. One of those things is that you can get to know a person so much better by watching their body language than by having a conversation. Someone could be saying something very nice or interesting and seem engaged in the conversation, but their body language could be giving off the complete opposite vibe.

2. I learn social cues from observation.

I know what you're thinking, I watch people and situations a lot. It probably sounds weird. I promise it isn't. It's how I have to learn. Since it's less likely for me to learn about social cues through actual social interaction, I take a lot of time to learn through observation.

I watch people's actions and facial expressions in different settings to figure out the social acceptability of behaviors that I'm unsure of. Granted, a lot of social interaction is common sense, but you can never be too sure.

3. I listen quite closely.

Very rarely am I too focused on what someone else is saying if I am busy formulating what I am going to say next. When I am feeling generally shy or uncomfortable, I tend to listen much more to what people are saying in order to distract myself. I analyze their words and statements and get familiar with speech patterns. It's also how I learn how to respond to them in the long run.

4. I retain a lot of information.

Because of how closely I am listening to someone talk, I also tend to retain a vast majority of the conversation. I am able to recall conversations from a long time before and also keep important things in mind for the next time I engage in conversation with that person. This also means that if you insult me, I will remember it.

5. I learn a lot by watching others interact.

I have come to find that people converse differently with different sets of people. I found this out by watching and listening to how my friends and family interact with me, versus how they interact with other friends, family, or strangers. You can learn a lot about what kind of person someone is based on how they interact with others.

6. I learn a lot of new words and phrases.

I love learning new words and phrases and it's usually very easy to pick up on in a conversation. I usually use context clues to figure out what they mean and then look them up before I decide to use them in conversation.

7. I'm great with secrets.

Being a relatively private person myself, I tend to keep a lot of my own information pretty tightly guarded. This means that when people come to me with secrets, I'll protect it like it's one of my own. It also helps that 7 times out of 10 the thought of having casual conversation physically makes me sick to my stomach. Who am I gonna spill your secrets to?

8. I will rarely ever interrupt a conversation.

I generally don't have a lot to say. So I will almost never interrupt in conversation. Not only that, but it's rude to do so I just don't make it a habit.

9. I will never be the loudest person in the room.

That's just not even possible for me. Even if I am in a talkative social mood. I am just not a loud person. Therefore I will never be the loud girl in the corner that everyone silently wishes would just shut up.

10. Rarely ever do I appear "up to something."

With loud people, the minute you go silent, everyone thinks your up to no good and you're caught in no time. Being quiet all of the time means unless people are able to read my face well enough, they never know when I'm up to something. They just assume I'm quiet because I'm uncomfortable or have nothing to say. Not that I'm scheming in my mind.

11. It is so much easier to exit a social event.

People will greet you when you arrive and maybe talk to you for a little while, but rarely ever enough to notice if you decide to leave. People that talk a lot tend to take forever to leave places because they have to say goodbye to almost everyone they talked to. If I only talked to the same 4-6 people the entire time, I can slip out relatively unnoticed and not feel guilt for not saying goodbye to literally everyone in the room.