It's 10:30, I've done my laundry, then relaxed, and got ready for bed. My big exam was tomorrow for a class I utterly despised, but I knew that I was at least going to get enough sleep before the early alarm clock goes off....
... Then suddenly one of my roommates comes in the apartment with her boyfriend, the other roommates join in on their fun and begin chitchatting, and there is laughing and silly movies being played.... Without me, on that ONE night I had to go to bed early...
Besides the fact that that was annoying because it woke me up, it also made me feel uninvited. Don't get me wrong, people are allowed to have fun in groups without me, but when it's in a space that's also mine when I'm trying to sleep, as you can understand, it can be pretty upsetting.
Typically extroverts have this general need to either be socially stimulated, or to not miss out on what others are doing, whereas introverts need their quiet or alone time to process their thoughts. Even though my personality type has the mildest form of "extrovertedness", I still can get pretty lonely pretty easily! It's a nasty feeling, but thankfully with my group of friends, I've been learning to deal with it alright.
Being the only extrovert in my apartment can really suck sometimes, to say the least. I'll wanna party at times when my roommates wanna chill, and sometimes they'll do fun things when I'm not even there. They're not doing this "on purpose", it's just the way they are. Because of this I have learned a lot about what makes them unique, and also what's cool about my personality type, and the beauty between our inner differences.
Sometimes, because I'm the "odd-one-out" in our group, the other three can connect in an intuitive and psychological level that I simply cannot. Later in life I'm going to deal with people who can't relate to me, who DON'T want to hang out with me, who need me to NOT be around, and I'm going to have to give them their space, whether that's what I want or not. It's a good lesson to learn, even if it's a hard and sometimes lonely one. I will say, the good times with my introverted buddies outweigh the sometimes-tough-times, and I couldn't have asked for a better situation.
They may never understand me fully, and that's ok. People are going to be different, vastly different, and sometimes it's really not so bad being the "odd-one-out". Sometimes that just means you're the special one. If you frequently feel friction just because of differences between you and others, or you get lonely often, or you just feel you don't belong, hang in there. And if you introverts out there have wee had to deal with an annoying lot of extroverts, I feel you. The toughest moments in life are always the ones that make us better in the long run.
One other thing I also learned from them? Is that I need to get me some more extroverted friends, FAST!!! Before I go CRAZYYYY!!!!!!
Peace out everyone!
Bethany
