She's So Shy

My favorite TV shows and movies always revolve around a main character typically portrayed as painfully shy, shy and troubled, shy and awkward or shy and nerdy. Apparently, shyness alone isn’t crippling enough. It goes hand and hand with other low self-esteem tags. The condition has additional social ills attached, guaranteeing personal and professional disaster… unless, of course, some fantastic miracle occurs that compels the star to overcome his/her extreme liability. Such divine intervention usually appears in the guise of a super-attractive, deeply longed-for, unattainable love interest, blissfully unaware of our shy hero/heroine’s existence until fate steps in, forcing a critical, well-timed collision of hearts and souls.


I relate to the shy ones because, way back when, that was me.  All through childhood, adolescence and beyond, I was shy socially.  Even so, I just kept shoving myself into situations I dreaded, and at some point, I started to overcome my shyness.  I managed to tap into an innate chutzpah lurking beneath the surface. Long before a certain shoe enterprise latched on and made it theirs, I had the best mantra ever, a bit on the lengthy side:  Just Do It, Already!  For God's Sake, What Are You Waiting For?  The Messiah?  Spit It Out, Girl! 

And now that I'm on Facebook, I've gone a little wild.  My updated mantra is:  Ha!  I Don't Give A Flying @#$%!!!!  Stand Back!  Outta My Way, Suckas!  I'm sending friend requests to people I barely had the nerve to talk to in high school.  It's bizarrely liberating.  I don't even care if they "friend" me back, but when they do, I go completely ga-ga.  It's a "woo-hoo" moment; a "yippee for me" high point.   The boy I had the most severe, and long-lasting crush on in junior high has finally acknowledged me. It took forever, but still, wasn't it worth the wait?  The girls who were too cool on the quad, but told me their secrets in gym class, have given me the ol' FB nod, probably because I could always make them laugh.  So now they figure, sure, whatever, let that Short Jewish Gal in, the one who always did those weird modern dance numbers.  In this virtual world, everyone can be popular.  Nothing wrong with that.  Better late than never, especially for someone like me, who spent decades on the run from shyness, until I broke out, once and for all.