Last week, my soccer coach gave me the position of captain. The captain 's role is to lead the team through the game by using strategy and critical thinking. In other words, I would be a coach 's assistant. I 'd never had that responsibility before, and the prospect of me being in charge of the game-play and having to think for the good of the group was a frightening one. As an introvert with a tendency to keep quiet and follow along, the thought of not being able to do this worried me. Was I going to be able to project my voice, to be confident enough to tell them what to do? What if I got something wrong, and everyone thought I was inadequate, that I was a bad player, a bad person... the list in my brain went on.

As I continued to spiral