Introverted

It's weird, but college has made me realize something about myself. I'm a complete introvert, despite believing the opposite during high school. This doesn't mean that I cant be extroverted in some situations (such as work, school, etc). A lot of people think that being introverted means you're shy as well, that's definitely not the case here.

Simply put, I'm just not a very social person. I'd much rather go home and read a book than go to a party. In fact, party situations really make me uncomfortable. I've tried several times to get over this but I always still feel that bit of discomfort that makes the entire evening really weird for me. I know this is a quality that people don't understand, and it puts this big distance between myself and people who enjoy these kind of things.

I do like to go out, don't get me wrong, but I only like to be around people I know and usually doing things that doesn't involve large crowds of people I've never seen before or know only as acquaintances. It doesn't help that I don't really like to drink either.

Being introverted makes other things uncomfortable for me as well...and for some reason, the biggest one I have trouble with is talking on the phone. I can do it no problem, but I get really anxious about it, like I'm going to say something weird that the other person might misinterpret and get mad about. It's a silly kind of anxiety but it always blossoms up, right before I answer or dial....sometimes it makes me even chicken out and not pick up the phone. I don't actually know if this is directly related to being an introverted person, but it makes sense to categorize it as such.

Just because I don't like to go out and party (or be in large crowds) or talk on the phone doesn't mean that I don't like to hang out or talk. I'll email/text you all day, back and forth, and have just as rich a conversation as we would on the telephone. If you want to come over for a movie night or go out and see a movie, come over for games, go grab dinner, anything like that...I'm definitely down for that. It's just a matter of what you would rather do or what you're more comfortable with as a person.

Unfortunately I'm also at a point in life where a lot of people are into drinking and partying. 

I think the social norm in our society is to be extroverted, which makes it hard for people to understand an introvert. In fact, I didn't understand any of it until being hired for ASOSU and going through communication trainings. I wish they had classes for those kind of things, so that everyone can learn the differences between the way people interact with other people.

This was kind of long winded but I just wanted to express something I've been thinking about for a really long time. It seems that in college I haven't made the connections with people that I was able to make in high school and I think that this has a lot to do with it.