This is my very first article for this blog! Yay! How exciting! It’s strange to think that maybe, someday, I will look back at this and think, “Yup, this is where it all started.”

This is blog is sort of my own personal journey to find answers. I will be writing, from my own experience, about living as an extrovert in a world that, in my opinion, has come to favor introversion so much more in these more recent years.

Around the time I officially became a young adult, I started having questions about who I really was. I also started to realize how much I had changed from when I was younger. I had become so much more reflective and quiet than I was originally, and lost some of my signature sparkle along the way.

What had happened to me?

Why did I feel guilty taking up airspace for more than 10 seconds in a conversation, even if my introvert friend had been talking non-stop for 30 minutes?

Why did I isolate myself in my room frequently instead of going to places where there were people?

Why did I understand introverts’ needs better than extroverts’ needs?

Why were practically all of my friends introverts?

That’s when I started to wonder if and how I could get my sparkle back. Was I supposed to get it back? Or had I been permanently transformed?

I believed that I could become like I had been before—outgoing, confident, friendly, enthusiastic, even loud. With no lid on any of it. I wanted to be unapologetically me. So, like any member of my generation (and countless others) would probably do, I tried searching for answers on the internet.

Unfortunately, I found there wasn’t a whole lot of support specifically for extroverts out there, especially not for those in my position. It seemed there were many websites, blogs, and even subreddits specifically for introverts, but very few, almost none, for extroverts. Instead, to my dismay (and annoyance), I saw many put-downs aimed towards extroverts.

“Why are extroverts so loud?”

“Why are extroverts so annoying?”

It’s easy to feel alone in times like that, but I don’t think I am (or was) alone.

I’ve started to see that there are other extroverts out there that feel the same way.

“Being an extrovert is not a blessing, it is a CURSE” was the title of one Redditor’s frustrated post. Another titled theirs similarly: “Being an extrovert is a lot more difficult and depressing than many people realize.”

Those are pretty depressing views to have. Why would we choose to believe that we’re hated, that our needs will be dismissed, that no one will accept us or our natural way of being? Isn’t that what many introverts used to believe?

We don’t have to feel bad for being extroverted. We don’t have to lie to people and tell them we’re ambiverts or introverts, when we’re actually not. We don’t have to feel embarrassed about our needs and getting them met. We can learn to be happy and comfortable in our own skin again.

I think that there are other extroverts out there who are like me, who need help and support with returning to themselves and loving and appreciating who they really are. So this blog is for all of us, my fellow extroverts in the woods, so that we can know that we are not alone.

Tags: AllExtroverts, IntroductionPosts, All Posts