Just this afternoon, a friend told me how she was being approached by two guys. She is infatuated with the first guy but unsure of his feeling. In the other hand, the second guy was infatuated with her but she only thinks him as a friend. The second guy expressed his feeling directly and asked to be a couple. She accepted (although in an abstract answer: let’s-get-to-know-each-other-better kind of way) because she was frustrated with the first guy, whom she likes better. She even found the courage to express her feeling to the first guy after the fact!
What she shared befuddled me in many different ways.
Firstly is how easily for her to like and be liked by guys because she is so sociable. For the life of me, I just cannot be that easygoing and warm! As an introvert, I was not built that way.
Secondly is how she is capable of being in a close relationship with someone she only barely likes. That is, figuratively speaking, putting your heart in the palm of someone you don’t know that well. That amount of trust is simply something I don’t have. Blame it on the introversion.
Lastly is how I admired her courage to express her feeling although unsure of reciprocation. The introverted me just don’t have that capabilities because of the fear of rejection.
Extroversion does have some advantages but it is not that I hide behind my introversion. I like being an introvert. I like not to have to be around people all the time. Just like some people love to read while others prefer sport, I like being with my own thoughts because I will be more energized that way.
This is how God built me so He has His reasons in inventing me this way. Introversion is a biological as well as a psychological trait, which you cannot change. Modify, perhaps. Maximizing strengths and minimizing weaknesses, that can be done. But I can’t alter who I am.
In a world that is loud and full of people, extroversion is overrated. Introverts are misunderstood and underestimated. But do you know who are great people who are introverts: Albert Einstein, Bill Gates and even Barack Obama!
And do you know who are extroverts? The unfaithful Bill Clinton, the war-mongering George Bush and…. the ever-expressing-his-concerned-feelings-in-a-state-speech-to-the-nation SBY!
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