I was that girl who wore turkey costumes and baby sumo wrestler suits during pep rallies in high school. And while wearing said outfits, I had to run all over the basketball court getting dodge balls thrown at me, or having to pump up the crowd and no part of me cared, whatsoever. Of course, pictures of me wearing the outfits were posted all over every social media page you can think of, and people were asking me for weeks afterwards if I was embarrassed at all. But the thing is, I never really got embarrassed because I had the mindset that nothing is embarrassing if you don’t let it be. I also finally had a thigh gap in the baby outfit, so that was a plus.
Most girls who go through sorority recruitment are usually scared when they begin to think about what they’re going to say during the different parties. I didn’t really have this fear. I consider myself a fairly outgoing person and by fairly, I mean that I could hold a conversation with a brick wall for an hour if I had to. The awkward silence thing doesn’t really happen around me because I have an unfortunate amount of word vomit. I just have so much to say and I get so excited telling stories that sometimes it all just comes out at once. My words just run together and form one big gibberish word. It has taken my family a good 18 years to actually understand what I’m saying when I start to talk fast.
If you can't tell by now, I’m clearly not shy at all. Because of that, I say everything that comes to my mind. And with no filter. I just say what everyone else is thinking. Sound familiar? This does get me in trouble from time to time or put me in awkward situations but hey, it builds character. So when I finally meet someone I have heavily crept on on Instagram, I never really know if I should ask them how that one Thanksgiving was at their grandma's last year where the dog ate all the mashed potatoes or if I should just let them bring it up on their own. It usually isn’t the latter and I immediately regret my life choices.
When I meet someone who doesn’t talk too much, and would much rather keep to themselves, I realize I can make them uncomfortable with my overly outgoing nature. But since I genuinely enjoy talking to people, I try to make them less uncomfortable by chatting them up, which usually turns into an increased level of discomfort on their end. It’s a tragic, never ending cycle.
You know how people are actually more afraid of public speaking than death? Again, I’m not in this category. I had to do my fair share of speaking in front of people in high school and thus far in college, and while I still do get a little anxious, it is not paralyzing. I know that if I mess up my personality will take over and I’ll just laugh it off because if you can’t laugh at yourself, what can you laugh at?
