I found a link for this article about introverts in the lovely D's journal. Pretty accurate and thought-provoking stuff, though the semi-snobbish undertones and generalizing people into two groups bothered me a little. I mean, I'm a classic introvert, no shades of gray on my part, but I don't look down on (er, up at) yappy extroverts and think I'm smarter than them, and I don't like the whole black-or-white-with-no-other-category-or-gray-area mentality (the same goes for things like male/female, republican/democrat, gay/straight, etc.). I'm also not sensitive. If you insult me, I'll probably laugh and agree, unless you hit a soft spot (Nick called me weak the other day, which REALLY pissed me off - I'm not weak, it's just that I'm small, so I have a hard time carrying large objects). And I don't really feel very oppressed for being an introvert. Misunderstood and slightly socially disadvantaged, yes, but not oppressed. I just like spending 80% of my time by myself (or with animals) and prefer observing people from a distance to joining them. I mean, socializing is fine and dandy, and there are people I love to be around, it's just that I need it in moderation with plenty of alone time to recover. I occasionally even get lonely if I don't see my friends for several days. But when I go somewhere with family (vacation or to a relative's house), after a couple days I usually get very irritable. It's not that I can't stand spending time with my family, it's just that usually when I go somewhere with them, I end up being around them a lot and don't get enough alone time. They know this very well, and my parents are usually pretty good at giving me my space. It's just my sister that doesn't understand why I need my alone time. She's a classic extrovert. She's always on the phone, hanging out with people, or chatting online, and she's never understood how I can sit in my room for hours at a time, not interacting with people. I mean, 75% of our arguments revolve around me wanting her to leave me alone and her wanting me to pay attention to her. We have very different definitions of personal space. But many other people don't seem to understand my need to observe. When I went to camp years ago, I liked to sit under a tree or off to the side and watch people run around, talk to their friends, etc. People would often come up to me and ask if I was ok and why I was sitting by myself. I wasn't depressed or anything, I just found watching other people fascinating and was either too shy to join in or just didn't feel like it. Things like this still happen. But then again, I think the majority of my friends are introverts too, so they respect and understand my social boundaries. Which is nice. And most of them aren't into the typical party scene (but they seem to like small get-togethers and dinner parties). I like being this way. So don't take it personally if I seem aloof and don't open up. Just know when to shut up, and we'll get along fine.
001. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me." 002. I will respond by asking you five questions of a very intimate and creepily personal nature. Or not so creepy/personal. 003. You WILL update your LJ with the answers to the questions. 004. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post. 005. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
1. How tall are you? Somewhere around 4'9", I'm not sure exactly, but it's probably within an inch of that 2. What's the grossest thing you've ever had to ingest? Hmmm, ingest... well the donkey hoof my friend tricked me into trying once was pretty gross, but I spit it out immediately so that doesn't count. Maybe the cat treat my sister snuck into one of those Ritz Bitz sandwich crackers and jammed in my mouth. I got her to try one (before she ambushed me with the treat-in-disguise), and she said it was kind of sweet and sour but yucky. She was right. It was pretty icky, but my cats love them. Or ham. Ham and pork are grossssssss. 3. Have you ever travelled by way other than a plane or automobile? yes, by boat, train, feet, little red wagon, piggyback, etc. 4. Have you ever gone up to a complete stranger and said something random just to see their reaction? Yup. One year I was at the renfest, and a guy was walking around wearing a dress, so I asked him for a hug. And at Alpha a few years ago, the dining hall was swamped with cheerleaders, and I wanted to go hit on one just to see her reaction and then say, "You know... I used to be a man." But I chickened out at the last minute and said, "You know, you look really... nice today." She stared at me for a moment, said "thanks," and I sulked away feeling defeated. I can't even jokingly hit on people, apparently. 5. Do you still fence? I'm really lazy. I kind of stopped going to practice sometime in the middle of sophomore year... maybe someday I'll fence again, but right now I've given in to sloth.
I am a miserable failure. The cheerleaders will never love me. *sob*
heatherface: