The Magic of Socializing

I am a nerd. Therefore it should shock you to discover I used to be shy and introverted. I am going to give you a few seconds to absorb that. Ready? Good. Yes, I was a shy little fat kid who was bullied in middle school and joined JROTC in high school. Strangely. it was the infamous JROTC program that broke me out of my shell. I discovered I had a booming voice that was designed to scream orders at a group of scared teenagers and form them into a unified military unit. That was cool. Even though I learned to hold my shoulders high and let most hate roll off my aforementioned shoulders, I still had difficulty approaching new friends. More specifically the opposite gender.

It wasn't until the end of my sophomore year that I learned of my interest in magic. Not the Wiccan and Harry Potter magic. Street Magic. The kind that you know in your heart isn't real, but scares the crap out of you when an experienced magician is performing. I have a knack for learning eclectic skills. Magic is a rare example of a skill that I decided to keep up with over the years.  I still remember the first trick I learned and it is one of my personal favorites for the reaction it gets out of people.

The innate problem in an introverted teenager learning magic is once you've shown all your friends your tricks, they get very boerd of your need to keep performing them. The only solution is to show more people. Again a problem. After a particualrly succesful performance of a trick to the one friend who had not seen it, I seemed to have attracted some attention of others in the lunchroom. Before I knew it there were twenty plus people circling my table (mostly females) and I was performing every trick in my little book. When I had nothing more to show there was an audible "aaaawwwww" from many of the more attractive spectators and my heart lept. I felt valueable. I felt exhilarated. I felt good. I had actually impressed, no, excited a group of my peers with a skill I had developed and nurtured all by myself. It is similar to the feeling I get after a musical performance now, but back then I had not quite learned to sing yet. 

I guess the moral of this lengthy and long-winded story of mine is that I am a completely different person today because of a trivial interest I had when I was sixteen years old. I no longer identify as an introvert, in fact, I am most certainly an extrovert in most areas of my life. I still don't have a girlfriend, but that is a whole other kettle of fish... Again, if you are having trouble putting yourself out there, or need a boost to your self confidence; learn a magic trick. Learn twelve. put together a small show and approach strangers at the bar/coffe shop/restauant to perform them. If you practice enough, you will be shocked by the results and maybe start to believe you are a wizard Harry!

May the Force be with you.