The Introvert Experience

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 19:32:00 -0400

Though I didn't know what "introversion" was until I was in high school, I realized as I was moving into adulthood that I experienced life differently from most of my friends. Getting together with friends to work on homework or study for a test wasn't fun for me, but stressful. "Going out" to a loud club simply didn't match up to a night spent "in" or at a small cafe. More often than not, I got more out of thinking about ideas, thoughts, and concepts than talking about them with other people; "small talk" was a chore--not because I disliked the people I was talking to (well, maybe a few), but because it too often lacked a deeper meaning. And while leading meetings as a president of an organization wasn't unbearable for me, it did require quite a bit of mental energy in preparing to lead a group of people in discussion. In all of these observations I noticed that my preferences or tendencies ran counter to what I perceived to be the more popular choice; what was interesting, and sometimes frustrating for me was that many of my peers didn't understand these habits. In fact, I would frequently produce excuses to leave "Extrovert World" so that I could do these less popular, introverted things.

According to the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator, introversion is a psychological preference in which one feels energized by being alone and having the opportunity to reflect on her or his own thoughts or ideas. Conversely, introverts tend to expend energy when socializing with other people. Many introverts (admittedly generalizing here) tend to have a few close friends (instead of many acquaintances), enjoy solitary activities like reading, writing, spending time on computers or with video games, or running, hunting and fishing, and tend to be more analytical in how they speak, carefully choosing their words before voicing them. Estimates of the percentage of introverts relative to the rest of the population vary (one source says 25 percent, while another says 40 percent), however most literature suggests that introverts are in the minority.

Today, even though I recognize that identifying as an introvert places me in the minority, I feel like I have grown into it. The experiences I have in terms of my career and life outside of work match well with who I am, and while there are times when I need to test my introverted nature in order to fulfill a job responsibility, I recognize that my lack of natural comfort with performing a task does not guarantee my failure to complete it. I look forward to using these opportunities to strengthen myself as an advisor, an employee, and a citizen.

Are you an introvert? If so, what's it like to be an introvert at UMBC?

--Craig Berger

Co-Create UMBC is a blog for and about UMBC, written by David Hoffman and Craig Berger from the Office of Student Life. Join the Co-Create UMBC group on MyUMBC. Like Co-Create UMBC on Facebook. And follow David and Craig on Twitter.