Becoming a better conversationalist and being a sheltered adult of 31 y.o.

I admire you for your honest postings and being daring enough to go after what you want. Focusing on yourself is not bad, it helps with your confidence. Because you want to broaden your knowledge, this is a great forum to do just that. Ask questions that would help you learn about other cultures. And then making personal conversations with local people would help you go over what you learned. Like "I have a friend in the Phillipines who said blah blah blah". And because you have access to the net, use it to find out anything you want. You can learn other languages over the internet. This can push you beyond your normal limits, yet you can stay home to do it. Then when you go to Spain you'll know how to speak the language! How kewl would that be. I like people who step outside their own square. Go girl!

One of my Teachers once pointed out that it would be nothing short of "extremely arrogant" to believe that the entire world will find our opinion and way of life "wonderful." The most challenging part of staying true to yourself, is exactly to find a balance that allows you to live an authentic life, while still being "in the world." Much of the time, people get lost because they focus on "what ISN'T," rather than "what IS." Let me offer a very simplistic analogy. We search for what we need to do with our lives. Someone may be struggling to find their calling and end up throwing up their hands in frustration, saying "The ONLY thing I am really good at is sleeping, so I will never amount to anything." Then they sit around feeling sad, wishing they "could be" a fire fighter, or a performing artist... because (in their mind) that is CLEARLY BETTER than sleeping. But we already ARE what "need to become." The important thing is to see that-- this person is REALLY GOOD at sleeping, so find the opportunity that supports it. Be a mattress tester. Be a dream researcher. You see what I'm saying? Also, when you try to stretch outside your "comfort zone" (which IS a positive thing) do it by taking your strengths to the world in new ways, thereby also stretching OTHER people's comfort zones. I admire the fact that you are conscious of making choices that support your value system-- most people don't have the awareness to stay true to themselves. The only advice I can offer is to be careful about "absolutes." As an example, I'll use your statement "I am not willing to watch cable TV." Is that really true? I don't LIKE most cable TV-- yet I have learned much about our world from places like the Wisdom Channel, History Channel, National Geographic channel, and so forth. My point being, there can often be great nuggets of wisdom hidden in even the darkest corners. By the way, you're already a better writer than 95% of people in the world.