I Am a Chameleon

I am a chameleon. Not in a fickle way, no. 

But the realization hits every time someone asks about my high school experience. It happened just the other day. I was meeting with two women for the first time and, interspersed in our business-at-hand, the talk morphed to that topic. I explained that when I got to high school and my best friend and I grew apart, it was hard for me to make other close ties. Not that there was a lack of people who might have achieved BFF status. No. It was me.

By nature, I’m shy. I’ve always been. I clearly recall one day at a petting zoo, where they handed out bottles so we could feed the baby goats, my 5-year-old self didn’t know how to wedge my way past the bolder kids to find a goat for me. I hung back.

And so it went in school. I was so good accepting friendship, but putting myself out there? 

I’m happy to say, I’ve learned how to break free from the shyness and introversion when circumstances call for it.
Like a chameleon.
In fact, I’ve seen that my nature can hide itself well.

My favorite piece of evidence is this...
I was at a auditorium filled with 300 students, grades K-8, who’d all achieved a writing goal. When it came time for the Q&A, a little girl, a first grader, found her voice to ask, “Were you ever shy?” After I explained that, yes, I still am, all I wanted to do was hug her and tell her that she was going to be great. I just wish I had told her about chameleons.

Jody Feldman, award-winning author of the YA thriller No Way Home, learned she was actually a social extrovert in college, where some of her closest friends then are still some of her closest friends now.