I am Painfully Shy in Person

People who meet me in person after speaking to me in text, email, and even in online meetings are usually surprised at how quiet, aloof, maybe even off putting I am in person. And I can tell.

The thing is, the social media revolution has helped me find a voice. In print, I can be funny, engaging, verbose. Over time, I’ve learned to translate that into live environments like Zoom meeting s or Teams calls. But standing face to face, eye to eye, with a real person, I find impromptu conversation and general pleasantries to generally be intimidating, with everyone but the closest of family. And in most cases, those exceptions are because i am speaking with gifted conversationalists who allow me to just answer questions rather than expecting me to be inquisitive or probing.

I was at a company function last fall, meeting with everyone who i had gotten to know remotely over the previous year. At the outset, i was met warmly by several people but felt like there werent any Real connections made. the end of the three day event, I felt very alone. And it dawned on me that it was my inability to really initiate or maintain a conversation beyond “how are you?”.