The Class Introvert

I’m a quiet person by nature. My introverted personality has always made it difficult for me to interact with others who are more comfortable socialising.

So it was no surprise that my first day at school in Ethiopia was a gruelling experience.

I had to introduce myself to everyone in the class and share one fun fact about myself. As if that wasn’t hard enough, my next assignment seemed even worse than the first - we had to share our weekend activities with the class.

I thought to myself – “If I just sit idle, I won’t have to take part.”

But I wasn’t left alone with my thoughts for too long. The boy in front of me had turned around to introduce himself. Thankfully, he didn’t have much to say. Nor did I. That’s how I usually like my interactions to go - short and to the point.

I should be honest and tell you that I’m a massive nerd. I like to study and math has always been my favourite subject. But when it was finally time for math class, it didn’t go as expected.

We were divided into groups and had to say the answers out loud. I was uncomfortable with this new method and I wasn’t able to answer any of the questions during the first half of the class.

In the second half, however, we moved on to solving problems on paper. If it wasn’t for the additional instructions that required us to show our work, I would have finished in ten seconds. Personally, I think doing it that way is a waste of time. Still, I was the first to finish.

I hoped I could finally relax at home, only to be hit with a barrage of never-ending questions from my mother. She said my teacher told her that I had done great in all of the subjects on the first day, but that I needed to work on my social skills. Naturally, I got a long lecture about how vital it was to make friends and told to be more social in class.

Things like studying come naturally to me, but I’ve never really comprehended why I need to step outside my bubble and talk to people at school.

[This is an extract from my personal journal. I hope to share more of my experiences as an introverted new student in Ethiopia soon.]

Reporter's age: 11 | Ethiopia