5 Ways I Know That I’m An Introvert

1. My best friend is my dog. No lie. I couldn’t ask for more. The great thing about dogs is that they expect very little above and beyond your quiet companionship. I have an 8 year old chocolate lab that we’ve had since he was a puppy. He definitely knows the routine and he’s content to just hang out with me while I do my thing. He doesn’t expect anything from me and I don’t have to pretend everything’s okay or justify my feelings for his sake. He knows where he stands and he’s comfortable with the arrangement that we have.
2. I have very few friends. I have a small group of extremely close friends, but that’s it. I don’t have all that many acquaintances outside of work. I go to work. I come home. I talk to the same two or three people just about every day. I’m not particularly close to a lot of people. I, more or less, keep to myself.
3. People drain me. It’s become increasingly obvious over the years that the more social interaction that I have to endure at work, the more exhausted I am when I get home. We’ve been joking around for years that I’m better-suited to be in an office by myself or to work from home than what I am to be smack in the middle of a busy office. Obviously, you have to do what you have to do, but it doesn’t exactly come naturally to me.
4. I prefer to be by myself. I’m completely self-sufficient and I don’t require other people to be happy. Give me a book or an art project any day. I can spend endless hours reading, writing, or working in my studio. I’ve always been like that. In high school, I was the girl that spent my lunches in the library. I’ve never had much of a social life. I’ve always just immersed myself in my personal goals.
5. I have very little interest in the act of socializing. If we go somewhere, I almost always take a book or my laptop. I prefer to read or research versus engaging in small talk. Sure, I occasionally interrupt whatever it is that I’m doing to participate in the conversations that are going on around me but, for most part, I mind my own business.

Apparently, there are a lot of people that mistake these traits for being all kinds of negative things, but it’s really just a matter of me being me. It’s just who I am. I am, without a doubt, an introvert. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Leave a comment and share.

Written by: Cristi Wuenschel