29.12.2006
HOW I BID FAREWELL TO SHYNESS
HOW I BID FAREWELL TO SHYNESS
Once when I was still at Grensas alone in my private-room I decided to bid farewell to my awful shyness that had been a burden on my innocent soul for as long as I could remember.
That decision has really changed my life for the better I'd like to think, even though many people don't, mainly rela-tives thinking they were being nice to me, when they were trying to hiss me down when I was blathering some nonsense.
A time and again something or another has happened to me ever since I made this drastic decision, that has strengthen me in my belief that I'd done the right thing.
In relation to this I'd like to mention all the effective salesmanship that I've been in charge of, where my vim and game were tried and the persuasiveness that I had to show when I sold almost anything from lottery-tickets and books to company-shares and advertisements.
Once my inner-most heart warmed up, when I was taking part in one of the courses held by the Trade Union of Keflavik for us the unemployed.
A number of unemployed people had assembled in the meeting hall upstairs in the Union's house at Hafnargata in Keflavik, listening to the lecture of Dear Psycho (a psychologist who answered readers' letters under that name in a weekly magazine) who came from the capital, Reykjavik with the intention of instructing us and motivating our cognizance and assurance.
When the lecturer's monologue had gone on for ages in my opinion and nobody seemed to be on the verge of interrupting with a question, nor discussing to any greater extent the topic that a few of the participants found obviously (judging by the wrinkles of their faces) remarkable but hard to understand, I took the problem in my own hands, because in my opinion pure discussion is the best way to make all kinds of lectures stick in one's mind.
My interruption was the reason that other people participated in the discussion, although it turned out to be our conversation, more or less mine and the psychologist's.
In the coffee-break I happened to sit at a table along with an old working-mate and his wife, whom were both miserably shy and locked up, in my opinion.
In our conversation over the delicious free coffee and cakes it comes to the moment when I ask him what he thinks of my blathering under the remarkable lecture.
-God almighty no Oli, he says. I along with the others, we yearn for being as free of shyness as you obviously are, but our only hope is by getting drunk!
It is the same concerning the other sex, e.g. when I happen to go alone to dances.
It's quite a sad reality in Iceland, that people can't dance
without first getting intoxicated, drunk.
A few may be slightly tipsy, but others may be on the world's edge because of drunkenness.
When I go on a ball, I intend to dance enjoying myself being sober.
Too many people disillusionize that one can't be able to enjoy oneself without the use of alcohol.
That's how I myself used to be, but luckily I've since discovered that I'm able to enjoy myself much more and better without the use of booze.
Another good reason for not using it is that it's so much cheaper.