Does your ideal night involve curling up on the couch with your snack of choice and a riveting Netflix queue? If so, you’re not alone. That’s pretty much everyone on a college campus at some point during their four years.
For a lot of people, including myself, college is where they discover themselves. I’ve grown a lot from last semester; I’ve met a bunch of new people and picked up a few new skills. I have The Scout to thank for most of it.
I’ve come to learn how to say “no thanks” extremely well, how not to agonize over a three-line email for forty minutes and how to be a better introvert.
To put it simply, you know you’re an introvert when the following is a weekly scenario: A friend convinces you to go out with them. It’ll be fun, they said. You’ll meet a bunch of new people, they said.
You take one step inside, look around and realize: “Oh god, I’ve made a horrible mistake. There are – GASP – people here. Who I have to – GASP – interact with.”
My delicate soap bubble of personal space cannot handle this!
Although introverts aren’t always people-shy, it can take them a while to work themselves up to social outings, and they might have to recharge their people tolerance batteries with chill time. Introverts don’t hate people; it’s just a lot of work being around the seething masses of semi-cognizant college students.
It really is a delicate balance: knowing when to push yourself out the door and when to let your introvert self curl up and ignore the world for a couple hours (ahem, days).
Many believe, “You have to go out and experience college life! Do as much as you can as fast as you can.” But if you can’t enjoy it, even when you force yourself to be there, what’s the point?
Sometimes, you have to take a step back from the real world and ‘veg’ out. Introverts just need a little bit more of that time away.
If there are any introverts near and dear to your heart, give them a rain-check once in a while. The world will certainly wait for you.
