Introverts Guide to High school

A high school guide to those awkward individuals.

[ecliptic-iceberg-blog]

“Leave Us Alone!”

One of the things we introverts wish to say the most is “leave me alone”. While most introverts will probably never actually tell someone to go away, there are ways of making them go away, without being rude. Now, I’ve met some introverts who will say anything, they don’t care about being polite; if that’s you, then I suppose this doesn’t apply to you. Here are some of my favorite ways of being left alone.

-Bring a book or cell phone. Preferably a book. One of the biggest disclaimers to the average social-person is: “This person took the time to bring a book here, which probably makes them nerdy and weird.” This sounds like an angel coming down from heaven, to me! Now, if by some random chance someone sees you reading and wants to have a fulfilling conversation about your book, that may be someone who is worth your time.

-Find another introvert-friend. While yes, this may be a bit counter-intuitive, trust me, sticking with your introvert friend is one of the best tactics. They will typically understand and feel the same way as you, probably not even want to talk. Hardly no one will approach two people sitting by each other, not talking. It’s just awkward.

-Work on something that no one understands. Okay, this one can be difficult to do, but it works well. Because lately I’ve been working on programming and learning Japanese, I bring my learning material with me. Hopefully no one will approach me, and If they do, just ask them to help! Usually they will say something like: “Uh, I know nothing about that...” and hopefully go away.

-Be blunt. If there is one thing my friends always tell me, it’s that I am blunt, direct, and brutally honest. So I suppose that the easiest thing to do is to just say: “I’m sorry, but I’m busy right now.” or “Sorry, not in a talking mood.” I say this to my friends when I want to be left alone, and they usually understand. Or I suppose you can just ignore people too. I do that a lot.

[ecliptic-iceberg-blog]

Presenting

Any one who has ever been in school can tell you the extreme discomfort of presenting a project in front of your class. It’s hard to show everyone a project that you probably didn’t try your hardest on... and while they say to “imagine everyone in their underwear”, that hardly ever works. I’m not sure about anyone else, but I happen to suffer from social anxiety, therefore I try to make myself as unmemorable as possible. I’ve got a project coming up where I have to present a slideshow in front of my class, and I’ve been debating the best tactics to survive it. So here are some of the tactics I’ve found best fitting.

-Don’t go first, don’t go last. It’s easy to wait as long as you can to present, but if you do that your project may be more memorable, especially if you end up embarrassing yourself. Try to go in the middle.

-Watch how other people present. While there may be that one-in-a-million outgoing person in your class, chances are, they are nervous too. Sometimes it’s hard to spot people’s nervous breakdowns as they present, so watch how they handle it. Watch how they move, speak, and gesture. You can try and model how you act based off of them.

-Speak loud enough to be heard, but not too loud. Oh, the dreaded “speak louder, we can’t hear you!” Most introverts understand the pain of being too quiet. When in front of strangers (anyone that I’m not friends with) my normal voice is equivalent to the decibels of a chipmunk’s voice. So I understand the difficulty of speaking louder. But you’ll have to do it at some point, which brings me to my next point.

-Look at a friend. Hopefully, there is at least one person in your class who will kindly support you. One of my most helpful ways to survive presentations are to look for support from a friend. Hopefully they will give me a thumbs-up for some encouragement.

-Try to stay level-headed. This is possibly the hardest one for me. Whenever I go up to present, I usually end up a red, giggling, mess. My piece of advice, is to try to remain as calm as possible, try and remind yourself that frankly, no one cares if your project is lame. They only care if it’s cool.

I hope these work out for you. Unfortunately, there is no cure to social anxiety, so there is no “amazing tactic” that will work for anyone.

[ecliptic-iceberg-blog]

Making New Friends

As an introvert, I understand how hard it is to make new friends. You may get bored with the old friends, or maybe they annoy you. Whatever the case, your end goal is simple: Make new friends. While it sounds so simplistic and easy to achieve, to an introvert, it may seem impossible. Naturally, we all just wait until someone approaches us, hope they find our awkwardness cute, and wing it from there. This may not always work, however. So here is my advice, based off of what works best for me.

1. Watch people, try to find your target. Who is the person that seems most suitable for you?

2. Try to be around them as much as possible, without being too obvious. This may be exhausting, but bear with it. Hopefully this person will see you around.

3. If they don't try and talk to you anytime soon, try to do the unthinkable: interject yourself in their conversations. Of course, try not to be annoying.

4. BE NATURAL. I cannot stress this enough. Try and be yourself, or you won't be happy in this friendship. Just be the most natural you possible.

5. After that, try to talk to them more. The more you talk and hang out with them, the more likely they will start to feel closer to you. Trust me, I know how hard it is to talk with strangers, but it's good practice for the future.

If you have no person in mind, and you just want to make friends with anyone, GOOD LUCK. Being an introvert truly sucks, and I'm pretty sure all introverts are doomed to a life of loneliness, but don’t lose hope. Chances are, someone will approach you if you look sad and lonely, so try and put on a smiling face when they do!