Reserved yet bold on occasion, deep in thought and staring off into somewhere of no particular interest or purpose. That is only the outer boundary that displays who I am that covers the seemingly infinite substances that really defines what truly is me. The mysterious man and his thoughts. What goes through his mind? A question that is pondered and asked by a few yet, never answered definitively. Well, I'm introverted and I'll talk about myself.
What is an Introvert?
First off, what does being an introvert mean? No, it isn't a disorder nor is it a problem. It is commonly known but is widely misunderstood. There are two categories that people generally fall into; introvert or extrovert. There is a range of degree of which they can be in. In simple manner, extroverted people makes up majority of the population. Extroverts get energized when they interact with people, they enjoy large social gatherings and seemingly talk non-stop about things that introverts usually find to be uninteresting to chat about.
Introverts on the other hand, have a preference for activities that are less stimulating, more one-on-one interactions and have a need for more alone time to recharge. This does not mean we don't like to go out and socialize. We do like to socialize but we prefer to go about it at our comfort level and pace. High stimulating events such as going to a party and the bar after will drain us very quickly. We get our energy back being somewhere in peace and solitude which is where we function the best. Having the opportunity to allow us to recollect our thoughts, drift in our own mind and let it run freely is where we strive. We process information and tend to analyze it deeply in our heads. We usually think thoroughly before we say or do something. We loathe making small-talk with people but, get us to talk about something that interests us and show that you are interested in hearing us talk, then we could converse for a long time. This is generally what introverts are.
Growing up as an Introvert
Growing up introverted in a world that is mostly extroverted can be challenging. You see them everywhere as they put themselves out more, hear them and deal with them practically everyday which will take a lot out of me being very introverted. But that's not really the difficult part, I can cope with it and adapt to that as I have done so nearly all my life. The hard part is the fact that I live in a world that is mostly biased against introversion. From going through school, to working, and to generally dealing with society's perceptions of introverts and their notion of forcing extroverted characteristics down our throats.
With school, most of the time teachers praise student participation where the more you participate in class the more marks you will get. I learn most things in school by listening, observing, processing and analyzing information in my head. For the discussions in class that wanted students to participate, most of the time the dull topics of discussions garnered very little to no interests at all from me. This obviously meant I would likely have nothing to comment on and provide to the discussion. I just wanted to know what I needed to know for tests and to move on to the next boring topic. If something did interested me or if I had a question, I had no problems of sharing it. It's not like I didn't say anything at all, I usually raised my hand to give direct answers to questions. Things that were quick and right to the point.
Even though I did fine in grade school and the teachers were aware that I knew my stuff, most of the comments my teachers made about me on report cards was something along the lines of "very bright individual but needs to participate and talk more in class... blah blah. My parents of course weren't too happy about that back then and I probably had to deal with it every report card haha. I love my parents though and they have done a lot for me that I'm grateful for. Importantly, I had no problems developing knowledge when spending most of the time in my head. As I stated before, it is where we function and perform the best.
Aside from all that, I do have and have had characteristics that when paired with introversion is quite a bad combination. As a child I had shyness in me and this affected the way I communicated. It definitely had a negative impact on my early relationships. Looking back at myself when I was younger I couldn't believe how I was then. But, as I got older, I learned from those experiences and it changed me for the better. Shyness is hardly an issue for me now.
This all happened when I didn't know what introversion was and heck I didn't know about it until a couple years back being 22 now. It was only then when I started to research on it, understand more about what it was, how accurately it described me, how many others out there were like me that I could relate to but ultimately, to realize that there is nothing wrong with being introverted. Looking back at my life, I went through quite a bit of challenges due to my introversion flowing from the evaluations from my teachers, to the interactions with my parents, friends, peers at school, and seeing how different I was to most. It got me thinking there could be something wrong with me and you're left thinking about it from time to time. Imagine having those thoughts growing up most of your life. There is no wrong in being introverted, we are just misunderstood people living in a world that is constantly talking.
