In a galaxy far far away…..lived an introvert. She would take ages to open up to new friends and never ever talk to strangers. I mean c’mon, why would anybody be interested in talking to her? She wasn’t witty or funny or knowledgeable about anything. How could she hold a conversation with anyone? No, it was something she was not meant to do.
But destiny had other plans. The year 2015 brought her to the strange shores of digital marketing, a world where everyone was talented and confident and never afraid of making new acquaintances. It was a strange world where people thrived on the exact thing that scared her to death. But she was here now and nothing could be done about it. So, like any good explorer she picked herself up and began the long march towards adapting to this new place.
In her travels across the land, she met a variety of people. They all talked to her and all she could manage was a non-committal head bobble and a confused smile. Soon she settled down in this world and slowly started talking to strangers. But never face to face. That was still too dangerous. She started writing and discovered that she could be interesting with her written words. Her write-ups became her currency in this world. She was content with that. This world was already too far from home and she had no plans to venture further out of her shell.
Days passed by with little excitement. She would sit in her shell and write, occasionally going out to explore new territories. If they seemed too complex, she would rush back to her shell. She was slowly learning the ways of this world. There was this one place though, which always fascinated her. The kind of fascination that is reserved for the things that scare you the most. This place was like a glowing beacon, always filled with new people and the words “WEBINARS” written across the entrance, flashing neon bright.
Our introvert explorer was drawn to it like a moth to the flame. She made cautious enquiries at the door and realized that it’s a place where you are supposed to speak to strangers from across the world and convince them to speak to an even larger group of strangers. All this while, you are supposed to act as an intermediate between the two groups of strangers. To make matters worse, one was also expected to actively look for strangers to talk to. Oh lord, what nightmarish hell is this! “Why did I ever come here” our introvert asked herself.
But before she could make a dash for the safety of her shell, she was swept up in a wave of curiosity and found herself right in the middle of all the action. For the first few minutes she felt like she was drowning. She was right, this was indeed a nightmare. There was just too much to do. Finding new people, calling them up, asking them to do stuff that she required; it was all too much to handle. She found herself talking to a stranger for the first time, almost paralysed with fear as she read through a list of questions she was supposed to ask them. There were awkward silences that she didn’t know how to fill. She was simply going through the motions, afraid that things would go south any moment now.
Wringing her hands with worry, sweat pouring down her temples, she somehow got through her first encounter. As she fell back exhausted trying to catch her breath, she had this small voice at the back of her head saying, “Hey, that wasn’t so bad! We did well, girl.”
And week after week that little voice grew stronger till it filled her mind with confidence.
Now every two weeks our introvert is talking to new people as if she has been doing it all her life. She has let her list of questions fly away with the winds and now believes in spontaneity.
And believe it or not, she also engages in a bit of small talk! Not bad for someone who wouldn’t talk to strangers even if her life depended on it. She still has this ball of nervousness in her stomach before she starts talking, but it dissipates soon after. We will just chalk it up to stage fright.
And once she settled in that place called “WEBINARS”, she also started exploring new places more thoroughly. This was a friendly world after all and you never know when she finds something as exciting as the webinars. She has changed a lot and is in love with this world, never wanting to go back to her galaxy far far away.
All images used are licensed under creative commons, sourced from Flickr and Pixabay.