Introvert, are you one?
I always thought I was an introvert. I don’t know but, growing up I kind of heard it somewhere, and it just clicked, it felt like something that really describes me. Well, Surprise Surprise, of course, it didn’t. Not completely at least. The term is defined as “a shy, reticent person”. First of all what is reticent? Okay, it’s “Not revealing his/her thoughts or feelings”. If I speak generally, yes I am like that, I don’t speak out of turn, and am quiet and reserved most of the time. But to be honest, that is not true all the time. Sometimes I feel like speaking without stopping for hours, not letting anyone else speak and just for once become the speaker rather than being the listener. So, am I an introvert or it’s just an escape for me whenever I feel less confident or insecure in a certain way about myself?
Labeling myself as an introvert, just helps me escape challenging situations easily. Whenever I feel like I can’t do something or fail to do something, people won’t judge me for my lack of confidence, because then it would be for having a certain psychological mindset which is nearly impossible for me to fix. So, I believe I am not an introvert and probably you are not too. Maybe sometimes you like to spend time with yourself, maybe sometimes you just want to sit in a group and just listen to what everyone is saying. This is completely fine, but limiting yourself just because you defined yourself with that certain word is not acceptable. I don’t want to be an introvert, and I hope you are not too.
It's never a duality, just like we cannot differentiate everyone between being good or bad, we just cannot differentiate people between being introverts and extroverts. If Introversion and Extroversion are the two extremes on a line, most of us will lie somewhere in between. It’s not clear why this is, but it is what it is. It's like a bell curve you know, for all those statisticians out there.
By the way, do not listen to some weird-ass post, suggesting all these great people were introverts so just relax. It doesn’t work like that, it might be true that they were; shy and “reticent”, but they eventually did break those boundaries and I can assure you that it didn’t happen in a single day. They had to constantly work towards it, they saw a problem and felt like solving it. If they had reserved themselves to the standards of being an introvert, probably you wouldn’t have even heard about him now. Because then that vogue post that you referred to, wouldn’t care for an introvert who didn’t stand up for anything.
Why do you think coming-of-age stories work? They represent some random character developing from being a no one to magnificent beings that would solve a generations-old problem. Or even the development of a certain personality of a person can really make wonders for filmmakers. For god’s sake, Saoirse Ronan made a career out of playing coming-of-age characters in movies like “Lady Bird” and “Little Women“. (P.S. Highly Recommended)
So, change your meaning, when it calls. Don’t limit to defining yourself with just one word, you are not a word in the dictionary.
