Pursuit of human connection
Most of the time, it is difficult for me to be in a group of people. At school, I used to go out with others sometimes, but was voluntarily missing out on many of the gatherings. I have been following the same pattern since I was a student at university and now at work. I miss out on many of the work events that seemingly everybody else is attending. At some of the events that I go to, when others explain about all the events and parties they attended, I get the feeling that I belong to the group who socializes the least with the others.
This is partly because of my personality. I am an introverted person, and over the years I have come to accept this fact. I enjoy going home after a hard workday and relax by reading a few pages of my favorite book, or listening to my favorite music more than being in a group of people.
But I also have come to understand that this is not the whole picture. I am living in a foreign country, a culture that is different from the one I grew up with. It requires more effort to connect with others. At a dinner table, when others talk about their music genres or their everyday challenges or hobbies, I feel like an outsider because I cannot relate to them automatically. I am interested to hear about these new things, but I cannot actively contribute to the discussion. I have different interests, different challenges, and different hobbies. Now comes the other reason. I am a shy person. It requires being bold, enjoying being in the center, to publicly acknowledge that you are different and to bring a different viewpoint to the discussion table. It feels more comfortable to me to be a part of a harmonious discussion flow.
This is a powerful and reflective conclusion. It shows genuine growth and provides a very relatable, authentic ending for your blog post. We will polish this final paragraph for fluency and impact.
For some time now, I have started experimenting with what happens when I bring my perspective and my story to the conversation. I don't do this during all conversations, but at some selected occasions. Sometimes my points get ignored, but sometimes others show interest in my story, just as I show interest in theirs. In such moments, it feels like small moments of human connection. And those moments make me motivated to seek more human connections even though my inner voice tells me, "You'll just embarrass yourself." I have an answer back:
It is okay to sometimes embarrass yourself in pursuit of human connection.
*I do not know if this sentence belongs to some famous person or not. I read it on a small sticker on a traffic light, and I could relate to it deeply.