A Journey From Being An Introvert To Being An Extrovert

I was a nerd like of a child who always wanted to sit in his room and want to study. I was the topper right from the very beginning. I did not have any social life. I was very different from the students of my age. At my age, other children used to play outside (football,basketball and other games). They used to celebrate their own birthday parties and go to the birthday parties of their friends. They used to watch movies and have fun with their family on the weekend. On the other hand, I was a shy boy who always preferred to stay in his room and study all the time. Even when my relatives used to visit my house, I did not go outside to greet them and often get scolded by my parents for that. Watching my anti-social behavior, my parents decided to send me to boarding school. It marked the start of my journey from being an introvert to becoming an extrovert. I was still a third grade student and did not want to leave my home. I cried and pleaded my parents to not send me to the boarding school, but they did not listen to me. I, as a child, had to obey their decision.

Hence, I embarked on new journey of life which proved to be life changing.

In boarding school, I learned how to do household chores myself. Every weekend I needed to wash my clothes, clean up my room, press my shirts and cook my own food because I did not like the one which was available in the mess. I had never done these activities before. At first I faced a lot of difficulty. I did not know how to wash my bathroom and sink and also my clothes. I used to do skyoe video calls to my mother and ask her how to clean the bathrroms or how to cut tomatoes or potatoes and how to cook my own food.I also watched youtube tutorials of making vertain dishes like lentils and rice (which I often used to make because I liked them the most).

I had to spend hours during the weekend doing my groceries like vegetables, tomatoes, and bathroom cleaning detergents. I had never spent the time like that back at home. The time spent here was completely opposite. I was accustomed to just sitting on my coach and doing my reading and memorizing my books. Here the things were pretty opposite. At first, this harmed my academic performance as it was difficult for me to manage and balance my time between studies and this extra work that had been laden on my shoulders. However, I started to realize that if I use my time wisely, create a schedule and implement it, that can made a difference. I decided to give it a try. As soon I started implementing my schedule, things started to change. I was managing my academics as well as my other activities. I also realized that I could also add some extra curricular activities to my schedule. Therefore, I added cricket (which is my favorite sport to it) to it. I signed up for the school cricket team and started to give it some time every day. As per my expectations, I played cricket in school and managed my academics and other activities quite successfully. Hence, this experience greatly enhanced my time management skills. I came out of the virtual world that I created back in my home and proved myself that with the motivation, determination and right plan, one can achieve anything and manage time effectively. It enhanced my maturity as well and I developed the quality of becoming the self reliant.

One of the advantages that I found while in hostel that there were quite less distractions as compared to home. At home, my sister was always watching the drama serials in loud noice and this was very annoying for me. Consequently, I needed to study at night which was really hectic for me. However, here everybody studies during the day and sleeps during the night. This enabled us to do better on our studies and take a more disciplined approach towards life.

Boarding school also added to my personal grooming. At my hometown school, there were only students from nearby areas. However, in the boarding school there were students from all over the country. There were students from Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa and Azad Kashmir, all areas of Pakistan. This gave me a national exposure and allowed to learn about their traditions and cultures and teach them my culture. It was also fun to learn their languages like Sindhi, Balochi, and Punjabi. Due to this cultural diversity, I got a chance to learn about different cultures which broadened my mind and gave me knowledge and wisdom which I could never have got in the school in my hometown.

As I resided in a community which was honest, hardworking working and followed a strict schedule, I became a more hard working person and this had led to my character development. Back in my local school, I barely had the time to focus on any other activities in school. I just went to the school in the morning and came home at 2 pm. After this, I just did my school assignments and used to prepare for my tests. Whereas in boarding school, we had long time for 8 am to 8 pm in school. That allowed me to take part in extra curricular activities such as debates and badminton which led to my character development and also improved my communication skills. Thus, boarding school helped me a lot in my life and gave me a chance to groom and brush up my personality which I could not do in my hometown school.

Hence, I do not regret the decision of joining the boarding school and is and will always be thankful to my parents that they took that decision that proved to be a life changing for me.