On Being Social

I'm never really been the social type. I'm not anti-social, but I don't seek out social situations. I blame this on my lack of social development as a child. When I was in elementary school, I was overly imaginative and very strange. I marched to the beat of my own drummer, which didn't endear me to my peers. In fact, I was bullied. From a strange child, I developed into a strange adolescent, but I had a tight-knit group of strange friends, so I was good.

For the last few years, I've been telling myself that I need to get out and find something that will help me meet new people, which I've never really been good at (aside from when I travel/live abroad, for some reason).

I've tried so many different activities, from medieval reenacting, to music lessons to yoga to ballet and contra dance, with a couple games of volleyball and ultimate frisbee thrown in. But I've never felt at completely at ease. I've never been terribly adept at sports, I have the wrong body-type for ballet, I had to travel too far for yoga (inconvenience is a terrible barrier), I couldn't afford music lessons for long, and everything else had me with groups of people that were not anywhere near my age group (ie. much older)

But after all of this, I think I've found something that fits! Something that I'm interested in, that challenges me, is with people my own age, affordable, and isn't a hassle to get to. And I'm already seeing a difference in the way I think. I feel somehow lighter in spirit. Not only because I'm being social with people my own age, but I'm doing something that I've always wanted to do: learn a martial art. It seems that everything just kinda fell into place. Not only was my childhood friend a tae kwon do black belt, but I lived in Korea, AND tae kwon do is a style that puts the focus on kicking, which just happens to be my strong suit (yay for tree-trunk legs!)

So all-in-all, I feel like I'm taking a step in the right direction. :P