Am I a confident person? Yes and no.

Yes because I'm certain if I apply myself I will succeed. No because there are many areas in my life I have yet to confront.

I don't have confidence issues. I haven't set foot in college yet so I can't say how I'll be when/if I eventually get there.

I think a good test of confidence is public speaking. In the past 8 months I've had to get up in front of 30+ people to conduct a 45 minute administrator training class at work. It has been a lot of fun for me but I know a lot of people have trouble doing that kind of thing.

lol @ the drill sergeants. They aren't bad, just loud. Some people get freaked out when they scream in your face but I always thought it was fun. Kind of like a little game; who will win the guy screaming or the person who is supposed to show absolutely no response? In my mind I always won.

It hurt the most when I was young and tender but as I grew I got numb to it and eventually expected it. It could be compared to living a life that could be compared to the beaches of WWII normandy.

With my family there was near constant fighting and physical violence.
Sometimes I can almost hear my dad in the replies I get here.

I soldier on in the knowledge that for what ever reason most people of the world consider me a threat. Even when I am minding my own business.

I live an existence where everywhere I turn folks have their trenches dug and prepared for my arrival. Some welcome me in to take my post among their ranks, like my best friend who physically fought to stay out of the gang scene in L.A. other people just open fire.

I'm at home in the conflagration, my comfort is probably the source of my confidence.

Wow, usually I only see furries or goths who compare the verbal abuse they get with historically important battles.

It's always WWII though. I mean, I know it's deeply embedded in the American psyche, but isn't the Civil War or the Revolutionary War also important these days?

I would put your dad on my buddy list. pullin' for you here buddy

I started college as a painfully shy fellow who was wound well too tight for his own good. The only situation I was confident in, ironically enough, was during public speaking, because I felt that I had more control over what my audience thought of me through how I present myself, as opposed to other social situations.

I became less shy and more confident during college, but my confidence only rose to its current levels when I started working as a microbiologist. I worked in quality control, making sure products weren't contaminated with microbes and such, so, believe me, I've had to deal with a lot of bullshit from everyone in the company. That taught me how to be more assertive.

I gained many job skills, and more importantly, learnt to stand by the conclusions I came to through my analyses. There was a time, for example, when I found high levels of fecal bacteria in a product, and stood by my conclusions even though the company would lose tens of thousands of dollars because of it. Independent lab analysis then confirmed my results and justified the actions I took to prevent exposure of our customers to these bacteria.

Now that I'm pursuing a Master's degree, I know that I have the skills, the background and the motivation to succeed. That is the source of my current confidence in myself.

Wow so much drama, I'm kind of surprised at the honesty of people on this thread considering the scrutiny you can come under around here. Rather then be a heckler I suppose I'll add my story to the mix.

Without going deeper then I want to on the subject we'll just say as a kid I was clueless about other peoples emotions, needs etc. When it did hit me however, thanks to a lot of 'discipline' shall we say and rumours pressuring my parents into thinking they were doing a bad job it hit me hard. From then as long as I could tell someone was genuine I would put other people before me, pretty much nice guy syndrome to Christian extremist levels at the time.

The only problem with that kind of new empathy is since before that I was a clueless bully the backlash by my school peers was enormous, like the merciless overthrowing of some fallen tyrant, but hey my school was happy! No more problem child! A lot of high/secondary school is full of crap imo but it doesn't stop it effecting you, my over thinking, angst, empathetic side won over most of the rest of my personality, my confidence suffered a lot from the joys of being a doormat and I've been trying to undo it ever since. :annoyed:

I used to be careful about what I'd say on forums. But you know what? It's the inernet. What are they going to do? Hurt my feelings?

I would say I'm a fairly confident person. I handle many unknowns during the day, and right or wrong, I'm able to continue forward with a firm foundation of self-knowledge and observations. This has served me in both my personal and professional life as others are willing to depend on me for assistance and advice.