I’m an introvert. I’ve been introverted for as long as I can remember, always preferring solitary activities, or activities with select friends or small groups. I never had any interest in attending parties, but often did because I was invited and it was ‘the normal thing to do’.
But I hated it, found them boring and a complete waste of time.
After discovering only six years ago that I was an introvert and what that actually meant, I embraced the ‘ownership’ of it. I decided to be an introvert and be happy with it, rather than try to fit in with extroverted ‘social obligations’.
I stopped going to parties filled with people I don’t know, and just went to the smaller dinner parties where I knew most people there. I enjoyed time to myself, doing my own things, without feeling guilty about it because extroverts were telling me it wasn’t ‘normal’.
I also started breaking away from the extroverts in my life, choosing to avoid them instead of hanging around them. At least those who just made me uncomfortable with their judgements about what was and wasn’t normal.
We’re all people with individual and unique personality types. I don’t need to spend time with people who can’t accept me for who I am, whatever my personality type might be.
Of course, I’d understand if they thought my psychopathic, sociopathic desires to murder people just wasn’t normal, but since I don’t talk out loud about those, they’ve really got nothing to complain about.
I know someone who’s an extrovert. One of the recent visits to see her (with my partner coming along as well) ended up making me very, very angry. As a highly judgemental extrovert, she thinks anyone that doesn’t want to be with people all the time has something terribly wrong with them. She urged me and my partner to seek medical help so that we could become normal and want to spend time with other people instead of with ourselves.
The look of sadness on her face as she looked at us, shaking her head in disbelief that anyone could possibly not want to be with other people all the time was really infuriating. I had to leave before I said something I might regret.
Many extroverts think that they’re normal, and anyone who’s not like them is abnormal, ill, deranged, unstable. They encourage counselling or medical assistance to help you get over your introversion and become more normal.
Honestly, I’m over it. Sure, I understand that their judgements make them that way, but I don’t need to be around someone that considers me deserving of medical attention so that I can be more like what they prefer me to be. I don’t need them in my life at all.
It’s a much better activity to spend time with people who appreciate your unique individuality, than to spend it with people who want to change you to be more like what they think is normal.
People who accept you and encourage your individuality without needing to change you are the people you need more of in your life.
Do you have anyone in your life that doesn’t accept you for who you are? Do you really need their disapproval for your life to continue?
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