I’ve always described myself as a “shy ham.” I’ll be anxious about talking to someone I don’t know very well while waiting for my karaoke song, and then I’ll go perform the HELL out of that song.

Not sing the hell out it. I’m only a passable singer. But I commit to the bit.

This weekend, volunteering at a conference, I was kind of shy about going up and chatting with people. Not super shy, but not exactly outgoing, either.

But when it was time for the volunteers to go on the stage, I went to the CENTER of that stage. In the front. Well, I thought. Someone’s gotta do it.

At the after party, we watched some Bollywood dancing. “Are there any first-timers here? Come on stage.”

It did not take me long.

I didn’t go to the front because I did not know what the hell I was doing, but I was in the second row, performing the HELL out of a Bollywood dance that I’d just tried for the first time.