QUIET POWER
Quiet
Power:
INTROVERTS VS.
EXTROVERTS
I’VE COME to realize not only how important it is to follow
my instincts and interests, but also to express my feelings
and explain my actions to others. Here’s an example that
might be familiar to you: Say you’re walking through the
hallway, from one class to another, deep in thought or
possibly overwhelmed by the noise and crowds. You pass
a friend or classmate and glance at her briefly, but you’re
so preoccupied that you don’t manage to stop to say hi and
chitchat. You haven’t meant to be rude or hurtful, but your
friend thinks you’re angry about something.
Be on the lookout for moments of misunderstanding
such as this one, and do your best to explain what you
were thinking and feeling. An extroverted friend — and
maybe even an introverted one — likely won’t guess that
you were distracted by your thoughts or by too much
sensory stimulation, and your explanation will make all the
difference.
Not everyone will understand your nature, though, even if
you try to explain it. When Robby, a teenager from New
Hampshire, first learned about introversion, he felt a great
sense of relief. He had a tendency to turn quiet in large
groups, and although he’d always felt comfortable talking
and joking with his closest friends, he had a limit. “After a
couple of hours I’m like, ‘Whoa, I can’t do this.’ It’s draining.
There’s a wall that goes up and I don’t want to talk to
anyone. It’s not physical exhaustion. It’s mental exhaustion.”
Robby tried to explain the differences between introverts and
extroverts to an outgoing friend, but she couldn’t understand
his perspective. She thrived in loud, busy places and didn’t
see why he needed to be alone so often. Another friend of
his, Drew, grasped the idea immediately. Drew was more
of an ambivert. He wasn’t as outgoing as his younger sister,
but he wasn’t as reserved as his parents, either. The more he
talked with Robby about what it was like to be introverted,
the more he wanted people to understand both sides of his
own personality.
As an amateur filmmaker, Drew had been experimenting
with a new animation style, and after researching the
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