What Makes You So Courageous/Bold?

Out of all the people, I crossed paths with, quite many ask(ed) me this question? What made me so bold and outspoken? I don't know what made me daring, because I have been this way ever since I can remember. The only thing I can think of, that makes an impact on you as a person is, your family and upbringing. Honest opinion and outspokenness have always been respected and valued at home. My father would tell me to not give up to anything irrational or unjust and to always be upfront, and anything really meant anything. I guess that support system hailed in me this trait. End of the day, you learn what you see!

My mom once told me this story from my childhood. Most kids fight with each other, so did we(me, my brother and cousins) when we were kids. On being spotted, I would outrageously admit that I had beaten somebody(XYZ) up. My cousin(elder to me) used to get slapped further just because he would be so afraid to speak up :-) . Now that I know this, I feel bad for him.

I do remember an instance from school as well. I think I was a second or third grader then, and was a good student, who would religiously complete homework and study hard. But for some reason, I could not complete an assignment once. I even remember the name of the subject :-). On being asked about that in school the next day, I raised my hand saying that I could not do that ( I knew he was not going to check my notebook anyway but I could not help saying the truth). I was punished that very moment, I think for the first time ever during school days. The same teacher handed over a chocolate bar to me 5 mins later. 

So was I in college. This instance popped up in my mind while thinking about it, even when there are so many. As we all know, seniors like to boss around and bully first year students in engineering colleges in India. We had one who cherished the idea of picking up a bunch of us(wherever he would find some) and then giving away free life & career advice, like " You guys should be serious about how you spend your time here and so on..". I got picked the second or the third time. I knew he would repeat same words with utmost confidence and with joy to intimidate us. I could see a bunch of students roaming around the other side of the campus and was curious about what they were up to. I am used to be in "always on" inquisitive mode about most things. I was gazing hard to understand what they were doing. Suddenly this senior year guy stopped saying whatever he was.., and was looking at me with anger. I found this out a few minutes later when I turned around. He furiously asked me if I was not interested. I repeated everything he did say at one go from beginning to end in the exact same words. He was fuming but had nothing to say and just walked away. :-)

I just carried forward that characteristic from childhood, to school, to college, to workplace and all the other facets of life. Only thing that changes with time, from childhood to adulthood is the level of emotional intelligence, the maneuver to put across the same truth in the least painful way.