Recently, I bumped into some videos and articles that talked
about introversion, the act of being an introvert. I have never thought that it
is something way more complicated than people might think it is. Introverts,
the misunderstood. This, I guess, will be series of my posts about how people might think about us, introverts, and how we might always assume that people out there think the same way as we do.
Don’t live in somebody else’s life! That’s exactly what
everyone says. In fact, introverts always will. We live in other people’s
world. We exist in the world where extroverts become the majority, lucky them.
A talkative, outgoing, and cheerful personality has become a standard
mainstream which, at the same time, perceive a quiet and not-so-outgoing person
as something weird or, at least, not common. We are living in the world where
people are pushed to share and express their feelings by the existence of
social media. Something that extroverts love to do, but it’s actually not our
thing. We made those accounts for the sake of having it, unless we want people call
us nerdieee!
Introverts, the misunderstood. People might think we,
introverts, are shy. That is just because we prefer to shut our mouth rather than
standing up to debate people. We don’t complain when our milk-tea should have
Oreo crumbs instead of pearls. Most of people might not know that there are so
many things going through our heads at that point of time. “When I say A, they
will defend with B; I have my counter-arguments, but she will get hurt, and he
seems to get sick of this and just want to get this done quick. Better I don’t
say anything; better not to argue; pearls are still edible.” That is what
exactly in my mind every single time it happens.
We, introverts, often think too far. Apparently, it seems
like a pessimistic way of thinking. We have too many buts. Every single detail appear to pop up whenever a big picture
come out from our brains. It’s bad, for some reasons because we don’t welcome
best possibilities that may come in between our plans. But, sometimes, we need
to be as realistic as we can, right? And introverts offer that point of view. See! I use the word but again!
All this while I always think that everybody in this world
have this constant conversation in their minds. It’s like having a radio-tape
24/7 played with two DJs arguing about what song they should play next or what
ad they should’ve aired first. I once read a quote, I totally forgot who wrote
it, that basically question about how can people survive without writing down
their thoughts? I definitely agreed as I always had the same question.
Apparently, not all people have constant inner-conversation flooding up their
mind and waiting to get pulled out. Apparently, it’s just us, the introverts.
Introverts are quiet, full stop. I bet that's what people
would always think about us. It’s true in a sense that we don’t like to talk a
lot. It’s tiring, seriously. It drains our energy. But, I guess the case will
be totally different when we meet our significant others, or a close friends,
or even a small group of friends once in a while. Introverts are actually able
to talk hours and hours, perhaps even from mid-day until the café is about to
close (Well, it happens to me often, at
least). We can be as fussy and loud and talkative as extroverts are. The big difference is we prefer to do that for deep-intimate conversations.
We value deep more than small talks, which aren't what most people have in most conversations; that’s why we prefer to shut out
mouth up most of the time. It’s not that we hate small talks, no, not at all.
We just have nothing to comment on, really, we simply avoid corny jokes we
could possibly make (because we think too much whether this joke would be
corny, if it wouldn't, whether it was appropriate. By the time we knew it was,
they have changed the topic. Well, never mind then!). We just don’t like to get
involved in somebody else’s drama (because knowing the story is considered as
an involvement for us) unless they allow us to do so. It’s not that we don’t
care, really, we do listen to such stories, no worries. But, to listen is the
best thing we could do.
(It’s not done yet,
there are lots more complicated stuff going through my mind. Well… this is, I guess,
to be continued…)
