Introvert or Extrovert?

Hi, I’m Tracy and I’m an introvert, wait! WHAT!! Hang on a minute! I’m told I’m an extrovert! What!! When did that happen…?

In the beginning – Introvert?

Growing up I was shy! Seriously shy. I remember not really speaking up, blending into the backgrounds and generally going out of my way to not be seen. I was the shadow on a cloudy day that no one saw! You ask any of my school ‘friends’ and I’d bet they’d say ‘tracy- who?’

So why is it people think I’m an extrovert??

Fast forward to today – Extrovert?

My amazing friend sent me a link to a Constance Hall blog and it got me thinking. Am I lost in translation because people only see the parts of me that are the loudest?

Constance explains that we are seen as living our lives on the outside, we speak up the loudest and we don’t have particularly great filters between our brain and mouth.

This does not mean we mean to be loud – it tends to be the passion we are feeling at the time. A lot of us are socially awkward and tend to talk louder to hide it.

We do have opinions that we are not scared to voice. We are happy to listen to yours too because everyone has an opinion. We have feelings, we are just as sensitive as introverts, we just lack the filter to show this.

Our lack of filter also comes from either a passion or a hiding of our social awkwardness. This all tends to go around in circles.

But what if?

With these circles in mind. What if there was no Introvert or Extrovert title? What if it is just a label?

I don’t mind people thinking I am an extrovert, I don’t feel like I am either. I feel like I sit with a foot in both camps. And if my confidence, (grown from some serious soul searching and acceptance), gives others confidence, then that makes me happy too.

I am going to say this next bit because I am growing small people to be amazing big people. What if we held back on labelling things? Do we need to be either an introvert or an extrovert? Can’t we just accept that each of us has different strengths and we should pull strength from those around us, without the need to label them?

It doesn’t matter how you dress it up – labels hurt, whether you mean them to or not.

Thank you, Constance Hall for your post “Myths about Extroverts” – please give it a read if you can because she explains it all here.

Right, I’m going off to cuddle my little people now and tell them how awesome they are!

Tracy
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