Whilst trying not to come across too deep, my placement year out of university is making me think a lot about what kind of person I am. As mentioned in a previous post, I was always an extremely shy person growing up and managed to gain confidence considerably after starting university. However, after starting my current job, I couldn't help but feel like I'd backtracked and felt like I had at school all over again. The main difference I can see though is my self confidence. Whereas at school I hated every last thing about myself; my body, my personality, my abilities, I have learned to accept these parts of me and even embrace them.
I have always admired the loud confident people around me who always manage to make friends with everyone and yet I now realise that my introversion will probably mean that I won't ever be like that, and that's ok. It's fine that I often have to abandon my housemates half-way through the evening to chill in my room alone and there's nothing wrong with enjoying working quietly by myself whilst everyone else is chatting. It's just who I am. I enjoy being alone with my own thoughts and find it difficult interacting with people for long periods of time. This does though mean that I sometimes feel extremely uncomfortable, especially during group discussions where I struggle to come up with ideas because I prefer to take the time to think about things on my own first.
I think many introverts would struggle to come to terms with this aspect of themselves as we live in a world where the extroverts appear to have a head start. They seem to be the popular people with loads of friends, who get promoted to more senior positions at work because they are more outspoken than us introverts. But we have things to offer too, such as our more thoughtful approach to situations and of course, there's nothing wrong with only having a couple of really close friends.
If you are interested in hearing more about introversion I would recommend watching 'Susan Cain: The Power of Introverts', which gives a very thought provoking insight into the topic.
