I met a girl that lives in the building over summer last year, the last time I was unemployed. I'd go down to the pool almost everyday and get some sun. She was on a staycation at the time and she was spending some time poolside as well. She's one of those really outgoing personable people. The kind that can make friends anywhere she goes. I kind of envy that, wishing I could pull the same thing off but it really isn't me. We're both believers of the MBTI and where she scored extrovert, I clearly scored introvert.
Introverts hardly ever make the news and it's the extroverts that love the spotlight. She's pointed out that she can easily go out to a bar alone and make new friends there without a problem. I myself wouldn't go out to a bar alone. I tried it a couple of times but it didn't work out. For introverts to go out to a bar with more than 2 or 3 friends becomes exhausting. We can only take it for a short while and then we have to leave and go somewhere a little less 'busy'. Also adding in that I'm not really a drinker anymore and there's one more reason to skip going to a bar in the first place!
I've known in some way I was an introvert even before I knew about the MBTI. It's kept me to myself and in some situations, pushing people away. There is a clear explanation for why I've been single or so long. It takes a heck of a lot of effort and energy for me to meet new people and for some, mostly extroverts, they don't understand why. Instead they assume that I'm antisocial or just being moody and It's not that at all. For extroverts, the same pull or need to meet new people and always be out doing something with other people is the exact same pull and need that introverts feel but it is instead to be alone or doing things one-on-one in a quiet surroundings. To do the opposite of what your nature is takes effort and energy.
It is the current place I find my life in that is making me take note of this particular trait. Extroverts are more often more successful than introverts in almost every area of life. Career, relationships, personal happiness those parts of life. As I said most introverts are looked at as being antisocial and antisocial people are not often invited back to a party. I've hopped from one job to another, never staying very long and never making a true home for myself in what it was I was doing. I've had so many jobs in my life that I can do all sorts of things. I've become very self sufficient and don't often need to ask anyones help with things. Which is another aspect that looks good on paper but in real life, is not so good, I'm sure you've heard the saying 'Jack of all trades, master of none'.
I'm tiring of being an introvert as it's not getting me what I want for my life. It's contributed to keeping me single, it's kept me alone without very many friends and it's kept me from finding true happiness. It's a difficult thing to take on but changing from an introvert to an extrovert can be done. Or at least becoming a suitable facsimile of an extrovert at least. I can just imagine it feeling like trying to put a square peg in a round hole, it just won't feel right at all but I think it's the only way to go about it. I read a quote about an hour ago and it said; "In order to change, something has to change" and to be honest, it truly is that simple if you think about it.
Now I have to determine how much I want that change to happen and how much I am willing to pay for it.
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