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Just because you’re quiet doesn’t mean you’re not confident. It doesn’t mean you don’t have great ideas. And it sure as hell doesn’t make you any less worthy of people’s time and attention.
It was the summer between my junior and senior year of college, and I was finishing a writing internship at a local nonprofit. A few of the interns and I decided to attend a concert in the park as a final outing together. After the concert, we headed back to a house where a few interns lived. Huddled on the sidewalk outside, we said our goodbyes and made plans to visit each other across the country.
We reminisced about our time together and decided to reveal our first impressions of each other, laughing as we poked fun and exchanged stories. Turning to me, one of the interns exclaimed, “You were quiet, so I didn’t talk to you!”
His comment wasn’t meant as a jab at me — by the end of the summer, the group of us had grown to become good friends. Still, when he uttered those words, I immediately felt a twinge in the pit of my stomach. Something as innocent as being quiet made someone not want to talk to me?
