Growing up, I stayed indoors for a majority of my days. I only went outside to play with my family or if there was a family event going on. In elementary school, I never really talked to people even though everyone knew who I was and vice versa. Middle school was a little different in that I started to talk more, and high school was just like middle school. Now, I’m in college and I think I have changed drastically as a person who wasn’t too social during their childhood.
Like I mentioned early, during elementary school I was not too social. I had two things to do: go to school and go home. I did homework and I participated in recess while I was at school. I talked to some of my classmates--the ones that I had known since kindergarten. I was shy, and I only spoke when I was really spoken to. When I got home from school, I usually sat down at the dining room table and did my homework. When I was finished with the homework, I usually had lunch afterward, which was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Another thing I usually did was play the video game afterward. While I was in elementary school, I played Nintendo GameCube and Nintendo 64. My favorite games were "Goldeneye 007" and "TimeSplitters" series. That was my schedule for a majority of my childhood. That was how most of the days went and I enjoyed it like that.
I competed in little league sports while I was young, too, like football. I played till I was about 11 and stopped after.
In middle school things started to change. While in middle school I found two people that liked the things I did. Wrestling (WWE), movies, games, and overall just everything! To this day, I still communicate with them and we all are attending college. Middle school was a transition into becoming more sociable. I talked to more people, but I was nowhere near how sociable I am now. Everyone knew my name since I was pretty much the only Levi ever growing up, but middle school was fun time for changing my ways.
High school was the next stepping stone. It was at this point where I enjoyed being social. I joined my school newspaper, became an announcer, joined the cross country team, etc. In high school, I knew a majority of my classmates, and the two friends of mine I met in middle school went to the same high school. By doing numerous activities in high school, I met all types of people. The thing about high school was that everyone stayed in groups. You had athletes with athletes, dear I say the nerds, and you had the outsiders. If you’re asking yourself “the outsiders?”, these are the people that only spoke to the people within their groups and kept to themselves.
Now fast forward to the present, and I’m in college. During my first unofficial day, I met my neighbor from across the hall. I knew my roommate and the neighbor was the first person I met besides him. During my first official day, I sat in the cafe of campus and broke the ice with anyone sitting at a table. I would walk over and just ask “can I sit here?” People did not mind and from that point, I introduced myself. I’ve met more people and I am involved on campus. Overall, I feel like I’ve come a long way growing up being shy and nervous about meeting new people.
