Fresh Air and Sunshine

People who meet me might say I’m quite shy and reserved; introvert is the usual term used by the good folks with a limited English vocabulary, which includes me, by the way, not trying to be snide here. I would hardly speak or mingle with others, even with family living under the same roof. I would avoid socialising with coworkers outside the office and I generally feel uncomfortable or awkward while among (or is that amongst) a large crowd, for example, at a party, wedding or in public places.

Although, I believe, like the Obama (I’m an admirer) campaign slogan read, it’s time for change.

Oh my goodness, what has happened here, you might be thinking. Nothing drastic. It was just a case of clearing my head a little thanks to some fresh air and sunshine.

One fine day a couple of weeks ago, a coworker happened to ask me if I was interested in joining him and his family for a road trip to a beach village called Diveagar which is about a 4-hour (100 mile) drive one way. Now, I had always declined participating in these kinds of outings, and had never hardly been on any of the previous group trips. Don’t know why, but I asked “is there a lot of activity involved” and my coworker replied “nope, we just plan to chill out at the beach”. I said “well, doing nothing at the beach, that I can definitely do!” and agreed to go along.

To cut a long story short I’ll just post my Picasa web album and Youtube playlist of the weekend which you can take a look if you wish here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/vishalrao/Diveagar2011BeachRoadTrip

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=61F38FADE24F791A

I had not been to a beach (or any kind of outdoorsy event) in a very long time so walking on the sand and listening to the sound of the water was a refreshing experience. Being with a couple of coworkers and chilling out, not doing anything hectic, unless you call playing Badminton after dinner hectic, quickly de-stressed me and “recharged my batteries” as they say.

After returning back home on Sunday afternoon and relaxing for the rest of the evening, I got thinking about the trip and, since my head felt clear, about life in general.

During 2011 new years time I had earlier thought what a dull year 2010 was for me both professionally and personally but did not think too much beyond that. Now, like I posted on my Facebook/Twitter feeds, I’m aiming to make 2011 much more vibrant in both areas.

I don’t want to bore y’all with the details, and it’s nothing major, just little changes here and there. Think of it as my new year’s resolutions, only a couple of months late!

I want to do much better at work without getting too stressed out. I’d like to become a little bit more personable and sociable without forcing myself to change my “quiet” (or, shall I say, “introverted” haha) personality; I like being me after all.

A few folks have been wishing me luck after I posted that one-liner on my Facebook/Twitter feeds, so if you’re still reading this blog post, wish me luck as well!

Oh, and if you happen to meet me and think of me as an “introvert”, don’t worry I won’t take it personally :-)

Edit:

Was just reading through the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extroversion_and_introversion

Technically, I am an “introvert” and do not even want to move towards the contemporary theory of “ambiversion”. My Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was “ISTP” or “Introvert Sensing Thinking Perceptive” based on an online test I took a while back. I’ll try to do this test again to see if anything has changed recently.