My Day 7 of 500 Words: Introverts Love Quiet & Introverts Love Their People

As writers (I am trying to get used to calling myself that:), we spend a lot of time alone.  We thrive in quiet, because that is where our creative ideas are birthed, and we can actually hear them.

Most writers are introverts and that does not necessarily mean shy.  The book “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” by Susan Cain helped me understand myself and others like me.  For a long time, I really did think something was wrong with me, because of my angst in a crowd or in really loud environments.   I learned to cope through the years, but not always in the most productive ways.

Being alone and quiet was hard to come by in college.  So, I learned how to “take the edge off,” and I found smaller groups within the crowd.  The smaller groups were often the smokers, because they typically removed themselves from the fray to fry their lungs.  The more I think about it, I think the smokers were just introverts who needed an excuse to hear themselves think or have a conversation, where they didn’t have to scream.  I don’t think they started off liking those cancer sticks at all.

I do like being alone but I also love deep relationships.

I recharge alone but I also desperately need “my people.”

Can anyone relate?

I wrote a blog post back in December of 2014 that, by far, has gotten the most traffic of anything else I have ever written,  The Introvert and the Tailgate .

I think, if you put the word:

tailgate

in any title and tag it with:

SEC Football

you are destined to get droves of EXTROVERTED FANS high-fiving their way to your site.   That is totally fine with me.  I just hope they enjoyed the read.  I sifted out the gold in a scenario that is not a typical introverts ideal environment.  In fact, I am not the biggest fan of any sporting events.  But because I am a momma who would jump through fire for her babies, I will attend anything my littles choose to participate in.  They are not so little anymore, 15, 16, and 19.  And that 19-year-old does not play SEC FOOTBALL, but he sure does go to the games; therefore, momma went to the games,

for a season!

Let’s take the sports arena down a notch.  Go with me to a middle school basketball game.

Do I want to go?

Of course not.

Do I go?

Of course!

Why?

Because one of the most amazingly, awesomest, sweetest, kindest, cutest players is my child.  That is why.

And when I go, I watch them, and only them, for the most part.

If they are on the bench, I watch the bench.  If they are in the game, I watch them move about.  I stay away from trying to use sports terms when congratulating them on the game, because I will most often use all the wrong terms and almost always in the wrong context. If they lose I just stay away.  My words seem to anger them and so does my eye contact.

*Side note for another post:  but I do not get the “sports crazies.”  I just don’t.  Normal, lovely human beings will have out-of-body experiences with loud volumes, scary tones and questionable vocabulary.  Fans can become freak shows and the losing players can stomp off with their families to make the whole household miserable for a few hours.

What is that anyway? Oh well…(TO be continued)

When my kids were just starting out on their lifetime of sports adventures, I would mess up and call their “uniforms” outfits or worse yet, “costumes.”  They learned, at an early age, that dad is the best one to offer “game feedback.”  I am the best one to offer dinner options:

“So where do you want to FEED tonight?”

Let’s head back to the riveting middle school basketball game, so I can wrap up this sports nonsense. (Haha-Just kidding for the “sports crazies” who may be reading this.  Some of those crazies, by the way, include my children, especially my boys!)

I had gotten to the game early, which is so not typical.  Why in the world would I ever want to catch the tail end of another game?  FOR THE LOVE!!! (Thank you Jen Hatmaker for all the FOR THE LOVE I now see in my life:)

I brought my book.  SHOCKER! I sat up top for back support and a little quieter space and I proceeded to read.  You would have thought I brought a bull-dog in the game, by the weird stares I received.  I fought every urge to put the book up, digging my heels in and

I read on!

I know you are probably wondering what literary masterpiece would be so gripping as to keep one reading at a middle school basketball game.  I am so glad you asked.

“Blue Like Jazz” by Donald Miller

I won’t go into the book, but I highly recommend you reading it.  It is fantastic!

( I really do think like, “If you give a mouse a cookie”-I am all over the place:)

So what prompted this post?

I know it seems as if I am rambling and I sort of am. But I was prompted to write this because I have noticed the vast majority of people around me, myself included much of the time, with our faces stuffed in our phones.  We don’t seem to think that is odd at all, but when I whipped out a book and started reading at a, let me remind you,

middle school basketball game

I was a complete mystery to the watching world, a weird mystery at that.

So,

if I am writing to hopefully add value to the world around me, what are the golden nuggets I gleaned from these past experience and wanted to pay forward with you today?

**Being an introvert does not mean we are weird.  We are just wired differently than the extrovert

**Introverts recharge alone but they love “their people” deeply and will do just about anything for them, even go to SEC Football tailgates and any sporting event “their littles” love!

**Jen Hatmaker and Donald Miller are great authors and I highly recommend anything they have written.  I also highly recommend “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” by Susan Cain . Introverts will better understand themselves and extroverts will better understand the “quieter” ones in their lives.

**We all need to notice the world around us a little more than the phones in our hands.

**It is O.K. to take a book to a sporting event; however, book lovers, we too need to look up and notice the people positioned around us, not just the people on our pages.

**Introverts and extroverts are a beautiful combination.  They both have a lot to appreciate about the other, and they are both vital in adding value to this world!

I hope you have enjoyed Day 7 of

#my500words ,

which has turned out to be 1181 words, but who is counting.

#WriteOn