Thoughts on Socializing

[unspeakablehorror]

I'm glad I make more of an effort to socialize than I used to, even as difficult and anxiety-inducing as that can sometimes be for me.  Because I am who I am today because of that effort.  There's just so much more I understand, even if I sometimes still feel like I'm a hermit who lives under a rock.  With the level of disconnection I had from other people, I'm sometimes surprised I've managed to do some of the things I've done, even though they're not the most impressive accomplishments by far.  I used to wonder why everything was seemingly so hard for me compared to others.  Now I know that a large part of that was that I had so little help, and so few opportunities to gain insight into anyone else's thoughts with how deeply I isolated myself.  This is why I continue to push myself to get better at socializing: because I think that ultimately people always achieve more when they work together and understand more when they listen to each other.