Opinions

     I am a very opinionated person.  I don't know if people near me know this or not.  Maybe my closer friends, but definitely not just the students in my classes.  I don't know why, and I have seemed to have this problem before, but I find myself hiding myself more and more.  I never give people my opinions.  I feel like my opinions, in general, sway from what most of the people in my town think.  They are entitled to their opinions and I'm entitled by mine, but I feel like I would get a bad reaction if I just went around saying what I think.  I am very liberal, especially compared to all of the very conservative people in my town.  Even the democrats aren't even close to my levels of liberal in this town.  Now, I don't think I'm better than them by any means, but I feel as though they would be upset as to my viewpoints.  I am very passionate and loyal to my opinions and will back them if necessary, but I won't normally tell people my opinions if they don't ask.  I know people don't want to hear my opinions all the time, but I still feel like they should be heard sometimes, and I'm not exactly sure as to how to go about doing that.  I'm bad at talking and I get very nervous and shaky when I have to do or say anything in front of people.  If I have to read a sheet of paper, I can do that, but if I have to talk about why I think gender binaries are stupid, I get really tight and my heart starts beating too fast.  I worry what people think of the inside me.  I can agree with others opinions if they're mine, but I can't usually just speak up for my opinion on my own.  This is a problem.

Do you have any anxieties like this?