I can relate, John. I'm very much an introvert in social situations, but I have no problem at all getting in front of a group -- I do it all the time. As for what your preschool teachers wrote...well, those folks are far from infallible. They - and the rest of my grade school teachers - deemed me permanently deficient in language. Yet somehow I tested out of my first two years of college composition class and I now work on important writing projects at work.

It sounds like you're an introvert, too. Nothing wrong with that. The world just tends to reward extroverts. I don't think many people truly change from introverts into extroverts or vice versa, but that doesn't mean you can't work on some things. You talk about going to bars with classmates, for example. You say that you're uncomfortable there. That's okay. As long as you're not so terrified that you can't even get in the car. Try going, even though you're uncomfortable. Maybe you'll get more comfortable with it?