introvert vs. extrovert

As humans we love to categorize things, although when we feel like we’re being categorized we start to hate it. 

Five years ago, [woah time flies] at an internship I was a part of, we were all required to take twelve million personality tests that told us exactly WHO we were and WHAT we liked and everything about us was supposed to somehow fit into a catagory to help us all understand each other. I thought this was the stupidest thing ever. How as a list of yes or no questions or scale of one to five test supposed to describe me?! I’m way more complex than a category…. RIGHT?

One of the major ways people are categorized is into extroverts/introverts. I was always uneasy about saying I was either of these, because as much as I loved being around people I didn’t consider myself the lead in a crowd of people or demanding the attention of a room. I liked my own space and my own time… but I didn’t consider myself shy, so what am I? 

A friend of mine described it to me as the difference being when it is that you feel recharged, is it when you’re in the company of people, or secluded by yourself. When she said this it seemed to make a little more sense, but I still thought maybe I was somewhere in the middle ground. 

In these past three weeks of diving into a place where I am literally by myself most hours of the day, where I don’t really know anyone… I realized I am so people dependent. I found myself so drained when I don’t have enough social interaction in my day. At first it was nice, getting away by myself giving me all the time in the world to just breathe, think, pray, and write. Then, after about a week I felt so very alone. I was dying to talk to just about anyone. This is when I began to realize, I’m pretty sure I’m an extrovert, because when I am out and talk to people, even if it is just simple conversation with my neighborhood barista I felt recharged from the seclusion of being inside my own mind, which can kind of be a scary place at times. 🙂 

It’s interesting the things you learn about yourself when you are alone on an island.