What if you’re shy?

How does a shy person get noticed? I ask because I have never been a person who seeks attention; rather, I prefer to read or to observe. Sometimes I am forced to the front of the room, for example for my graduation speech, but mostly I hover on the sidelines, not a wallflower exactly, more a rover. Sometimes I wait so long to get up my nerve to participate in an activity or group that it is over before I have the chance. Why should I care? I am also a writer, and to be a writer, especially these days, one has to want to be noticed; one has to wave one’s (often digital) arms preferably at least once a day and demand notice beyond what one has written. One has to share. Well, the thought of that gives me hives, not actual hives because those might draw attention but mental hives, hands clenched and my eyes closed, hoping it will all just go away. I am well aware that if I don’t wave my arms, send out some signals, make some noise, many other authors—and singers and entrepreneurs and dancers and actors and whatever it is that Kim Kardashian does—will make more than enough noise to compensate for me. I have on my list to read a book called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. Maybe it will give me some tips. Or maybe it will tell me to embrace who I am and trust that the world will discover my books all on its own.  A girl can dream, right?

http://www.thepowerofintroverts.com/