What does it mean to be shy?

Shyness (also called diffidence) is the feeling of apprehension, lack of comfort, or awkwardness especially when a person is around other people. This commonly occurs in new situations or with unfamiliar people. Shyness can be a characteristic of people who have low self-esteem.      

                                                                                                                Wikipedia

I feel very identified with this topic because I used to be quite shy. Because of this personality people thought things that were not true about me. Being shy prevented me in some way from developing the English language when it had to be. At that moment I was not able to establish conversations with strangers and as a result of this did not have a large circle of friends.


But things have changed and my personality is no longer the same, I am able to establish conversations under any circumstances, I have lost the fear of expressing myself and saying what I think because I realized that being the way I was would lose many job opportunities, study development etc.