Hey Tania, u reach out pretty well online, it is hard to know or notice the introversion (tho i notice that ppl who are educators often don’t appear introverted even when they see themselves that way, so…).

I also don’t know how diverse your environment is in “real life” and whether that is realistically feasible, but you already do a great job of it online… Am pretty sure what you do online would help you when opportunities occur f2f. Don’t know if this makes sense or not.

I do know that my experience of not making many friends when O lived in England (tho i joined a gym, 2 book clubs at the library, and regularly went to lectures at the univ) made me extra friendly to “new” people when i came back to Egypt. I made a point of inviting new faculty to lunch, meeting their families, etc. It wasn’t in the interest of diversity, as it was in an attempt to make their newness less lonely. I did end up meeting really interesting and different people and hopefully helping them settle in.