I understand Extroverts. I really do.
I “get” that they thrive in social settings. I can see that they enjoy engaging in meaningful conversations. They can laugh, and relax, and feel good when they are in the midst of other people. Sometimes, lots of other people. At a party, or social event, they can flit and flutter and move about the room, like some sort of crazy social butterfly. I can comprehend their expressiveness, their overtness. I get it.
I just wish they wouldn’t expect me to behave that way. But they keep inviting me to do things, like going to parties, or events, or out to lunch. Sure, I like to be included. But can it come with the foldout option of being alone, somehow?
When you flip back a few pages from “Extrovert” in the dictionary, you will find Introvert. And that is me, an Introvert. But the definition does not describe me very well.
Introvert. A shy, reticent person. In Psychology — a person predominantly concerned with their own thoughts and feelings rather than with external things. Compare with extrovert.
First and foremost, it says, “Compare with extrovert.” Well. Now. THAT would be just pointless, wouldn’t it? That’s like comparing the Kardashians to the Waltons.
But that definition. I wouldn’t exactly say I am shy. I’m not really reticent either.
Reserved, maybe. Being around people sort of makes me very nervous. It drains me. I’m not very good at making that “idle, chatty conversation” that some people do so well.
But this morning, I saw this cartoon, and it hit the nail on the head. With me in particular. I like people a lot. I really do. It is just that I don’t want to be around them very much. Now, dogs are good. I can make conversation with them a lot easier than with humans. And. They don’t ask me to go to parties. Ever.
Did you know you can starve an Introvert to death, just by putting a stranger in their kitchen? It’s true. Along those lines. We recently had the interior of our house painted. I hid behind the furnace for a week.
If I went to prison, I would try to break some really big rule the first day, so that I could get solitary confinement. Probably. But I don’t want to go to prison. Because in general, they are overcrowded with extroverted lawbreakers.
So yeah. That’s all I got today. This little synopsis, and this funny cartoon.
Despite all of this, if you see me out somewhere, I sure would love to say hello and chat for a while.
Not really.
And that’s me.
And of course, you are you.
We are we.
And all together, we make the world go round.
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“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”
― Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
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“I think… if it is true that
there are as many minds as there
are heads, then there are as many
kinds of love as there are hearts.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
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“The things that make me different are the things that make me.”
― A. A. Milne
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