Career/Personality conflict

[Megson]

For YEARS now, I've wanted to be a translator/interpreter. And not just the kind who translates documents. I want to go out into the field and travel, translating for individual people or perhaps large groups of people.
I'm wanting to go into Chinese, Japanese, or Italian.

My problem is this: I get very nervous and sometimes scared in public places. I'm starting to consider I might have some sort of social anxiety or social phobia. It's really hard for me to communicate with people I don't know.

Traveling is a dream of mine. The thought that I may someday get to see the world keeps me going. It may have even saved my life. But thinking rationally, I don't know if I can handle it. What will I have left if I'm forced to let go of my dreams due to a stupid personality disorder?

Any advice? This has been bothering me for a long time now. Are my dreams unrealistic?

[Peace God]

I'm sure there's plenty of people that were even less social than you that have turned out to be good at what they do.

I used to worry about that a lot too (and I still do tbh). I've always had trouble with things like communicating with people, making friends and speaking in public, however one of my career goals is to become a teacher at the college level. I still get scared thinking about it at times, but I know it's something I'd be damn good at if I dedicated myself. Plus from looking at some of my professors, I know for a fact that you don't have to be an extrovert to be competent at explaining things to people, especially when you know your stuff.

Bottom line, everyone has fears and obstacles they have to get over in order to be successful, refuse to let them stop you from achieving your goals. Besides, communicating with people is something that's hard to avoid with any career. Trust me, you will get used to it.