Some quotes about introverts

When you write a daily blog it is difficult to come up with topics day in and day out and it is especially difficult when the theme of the blog is about introverted people in this extroverted society.

This is where Mr. Google is a great resource. Thank you Messrs Page and Brin. You would have saved many a person's hide over the last few years and you have today too and with that I thank you.

I googled introvert quotes and as you would expect with Google you had about 6 squillion results.

Here are a few quotes and I would like to comment on them:



"Writing is something you do alone. It's a profession for introverts who want to tell you a story but don't want to make eye contact while doing it."
(John Green)

This is an interesting quote because yes, writing is something you do alone. I'm sitting in the library now writing this post. There is a guy sitting across from me reading a newspaper and drinking an ice coffee but I am basically alone. About the eye contact thing, that suggests that introverts are shy and to some people that is true but we are all not shy. Remember an introverted person is just someone who recharges in a different way than an extrovert. Anyway, I don't have any problem getting up in front of people and talking. This is something that both extroverts and introverts struggle with.



"The only problem with seeing people you know is that they know you."
(Brent Runyon, The Burn Journals)

Yep! This is a big problem. I must admit that I have done this many a time when I have seen someone that I know but I am in my recharging phase so I will deliberately get out of the way so as they don't see me. Why? I hear you ask. Well, what happens if they do something like ask me to go and have a coffee or beer with them? I'm going to have to come up with a good excuse. It's easier to avoid as opposed to being creative with your excuses. If this has ever happened to you, don't take it personally, it is just that the introverted person's social battery is running very low.



"Don't think of introversion as something that needs to be cured ... Spend your free time the way you like, not the way you think you're supposed to."
(Susan Cain, Quiet:The Power of Introverts in a World that can't stop talking.)

Oh dear! Where do I start with this one? I agree that introversion isn't a disease but in today's society you may have to fake it occasionally. You might have to become that situational extrovert. (the challenge is to do it without alcohol.) The second part of this quote is that you are free to do whatever you want. Who says that because it is your birthday that you have to have a party with 700 of your "closest" friends? You are free to do whatever you want. People are not going to understand it because they don't spend their free time like that, but that is their problem.



"He always thinks because I'm reading, I'm not doing anything. There is no greater plague to an introvert than the extroverted."
(Pierce Brown, Golden Son)

These are fighting words. I remember a few years I was in New Zealand and I got home at night and my father (who was a little drunk after a successful round of golf) asked me what I had done that day. I told him that I had been in the library all day reading and watching DVDs. I had a great day. I can't really describe the look he gave me but it was that look like I had wasted my day which in my mind I certainly hadn't. I had read, so I was educating myself and I was watching some DVDs as well, so I was enjoying myself too. I think what he was trying to say that he thought that I should have been out playing cricket or something. Socialising. But I was recharging my batteries in the way I knew was natural for me. (Sorry Dad. I remember that night vividly.)



"Spend your free time the way you like, not the way you think you're supposed to. Stay home on New Year's Eve if that's what makes you happy. Skip the committee meeting. Cross the street to avoid making aimless chitchat with random acquaintances. Read. Cook. Run. Write a story."
(Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that can't stop talking.)

Well, I think that about sums up today's quotes quite effectively. Thank you Susan.

Remember, if you don't want to talk, don't. If you don't want to go out, don't. If you want to read and watch DVDs and drink a bottle of wine on the sofa, do it! It's your life, do as you like not as society expects you to.