Formal Paper #1 - Rough Draft

Overcoming Shyness

 

          To say that I was a shy child would be an understatement.  When I was little, I would sit beside my mother and watch the other children play.  If they would approach me and ask me to play with them, I would hide behind her.  More often than not, by the time I finally gathered the courage to join in the fun, it was almost time to go home.

 

          My father was in the U.S. Navy.  We moved around quite a bit.  Every 2-3 years, he would be assigned to another duty station.  Two separate times I attended 3 different schools in the same school year.   Between kindergarten and sixth grade, I attended six different elementary schools. 

 

          My father’s last duty station was the hardest for me.  When he retired, we lived near a Navy town.  Being a “navy brat”, I was used to constantly being on the move.   Children of military personnel share a certain kind of camaraderie.  We had to say “hello” and “good-bye” to people often.  In this area, the kids grew up together.  Most have known each other since preschool.  I was an outsider.  Because of my shyness, I had a tough time making friends.  The cliques had been established long before I had arrived.

 

          In the sixth grade, I started hanging out with a group of girls that belonged to the popular crowd.  Once I got to know them, and found out what they were really like, I decided that I did not like them that much at all.  They were mean.  I started spending time people who were nicer instead.  The first group of girls were not happy.  After that day, I was ostracized.  They tormented me all through junior high and high school.

 

          I was an awkward preteen.  I got along better with adults more than my peers.  While in school, I was ridiculed for being different.  I was also a tomboy.  During my eighth grade year, my mother enrolled me in a modeling school in Seattle.  Not necessarily because I was beautiful, but to help me learn how to act like a young lady.  I learned how to do my hair and make-up and carry myself with poise and confidence.  Or at least appear as if I had those attributes.  After modeling school, I participated in three pageants. I took speech and drama classes, sang in the choir and performed on the drill team.  Although I never became a super model, have been crowned queen, got a record deal or danced with the stars, these experiences helped me gain confidence in myself and gave me the ability to overcome my shyness.

 

          My senior year in high school, I took a cosmetology course through the vocational skills center.  I didn’t finish beauty school.  I realized that I enjoyed getting my hair done more than I enjoyed doing other people’s hair.  I was also afraid of customers not liking my work.

 

About a year later, I attended the local community college. I took jazz dance, math, science and psychology courses.  I found the subject of psychology fascinating.  I loved learning about how the mind works.  After a few quarters of school, I got married to my high school sweetheart and started a family.  School was put on hold.

 

That relationship did not work out.  After a few years, I was a single mom with 2 young children.  I needed a way to support myself.  I decided to go back to school to become a medical assistant.  I was always interested in the medical field.  I met my husband.  I graduated and got a job at a small doctor’s office.  Within a few months, I became pregnant with our first child.  I decided to become a stay at home  mom and concentrated my efforts on the family.

 

I am now the mother of seven children.  I have six sons and one daughter between the ages of 4 and 21 years old.  I never planned to have so many.  I have always wanted a daughter.  My husband and I tried and tried.  We were finally blessed with a daughter as our fifth child.  Twice, we tried to give her a sister, but she gained two brothers instead.  Being the only girl, she is tough, just like one of the boys.  I have tried to teach her some lessons on how to behave like a young woman.

 

I would like to believe that I raised my kids to be confident and without fear of speaking of what is on their mind.  They certainly are not shy.  I am proud that they are able to socialize and easily make friends.  It is natural when you have a network of “friends” built into your family.  As much as they fight as siblings, outside the home they know they each have each others’ backs.  I am proud to be their mother and have faith that I have raised some wonderful kids.

 

After a twenty year hiatus, I returned to the same community college.  I had always planned on it.  I kept putting it off as more children kept coming into my life.  I finally was inspired to return to school when I saw that the psychology professor that I took so many years ago was teaching a course that I was interested in near my home.  I could not pass up the opportunity.  My husband has been very supportive with my return to school.

 

In taking the abnormal psychology class, I learned a great deal about myself, as a person and as a wife and mother.  I know my role in the home is important.  The class brought to light that the way that I treat and nurture my children has just about the biggest impact there is when it comes to how my children turn out as adults and eventually parents.  Of course, this was known to me, but the class armed me with the insight and tools to purposively do a more effective job.

 

The following quarter, I took a public speaking class.  Of course, many people would find speaking in front of a crowd a challenge.  I was nervous, but it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be.  I actually enjoyed it.  I learned how to effectively use my voice to speak about topics that were important to me.  Although, I must admit, the thought of speaking in front of an audience is still horrifying to me.  I don’t think that will ever change.

 

The other day, I met a professor that teaches acting classes.  I joked around with him.  I informed him that I took a public speaking course the previous quarter and that his class sounded like the next logical step.  He told me that I seemed like the kind of person who could do well in his class.  I think so, too.  I definitely am not shy.