The inspiration for this piece was an article called "The Care and Feeding of Your Extrovert" from The Badger's Sett as well as this picture about How to treat an introvert that I first ran across on facebook awhile ago.
Over the years, most people who meet me have assumed that I am an extrovert, and I suppose I am.
I CAN get up in front of a crowd and speak or sing or teach and once the microphone is in my hand I'm usually A-O-Kay...even if I've spent 3 weeks losing sleep and hair over it.
I am RARELY without some sort of friend in a fairly short amount of time no matter how often I've moved in my life.
I find "friends" in the darnest places...the grocery store...the parking lot...while pumping gas.
I have friends at every social strata and am pretty unimpressed with those social aspects that are supposed to matter. I really don't care if you are a president of a company or a custodian or an elderly saint or a young sinner, or tattooed and need to pull up your pants, or have the right shoes and handbag etc. That means that just about ANYONE is fodder for my friend collection.
HOWEVER...
I do have some weird introverted tendencies (not that being introverted is weird...just weird in an otherwise extrovert)...if I'm not TRAVELING, I'm kind of a homebody and the kind of homebody that doesn't really need anyone to come over. I mean, I do wish I was more hospitable, but I also like to not worry too awfully much about the kitchen. Not sure if that is truly introverted or just plain lazy. I'm really good at ignoring people if I'm focused on something, like, for instance a really good book. I'll sit by you...but otherwise, hush. I tend to be a tad shy around new people and will stick like glue to whoever brought me until I'm comfortable.
I've been looking at personality tests and love language tests for awhile. Not sure why exactly, it's just kind of interesting to see tendencies in people especially when they identify with one trait or another. Then to throw another fun twist on it, I came across something about Scorpios (yes, I am one) a few weeks ago. By and large I dismiss the zodiac stuff, but this particular article described me and a couple of my close Scorpio friends really well. So I poked around a little.
They talked about the intense Scorpio stare and that often, the first thing people will notice about you is your eyes. Got it...and it has gotten me into trouble on several occasions. They talked about the intensity with which Scorpios can chase things, be it relationships or goals or projects..."would you care for a full page grocery list separated out by section of the store AND changed as the store changes, accompanied by a massive excel spreadsheet for menus that span the meals of 6 months or so?"... I have just the thing and will email it to you right now. They talked about our secretiveness ... Our ability to hide in plain sight when we don't want to share...of course I don't want to talk about this one...would YOU if you had this super power? I think not.
So...phew...It would seem, consulting all these things, I AM all that AND a bag of chips. Bet you are, too.
One of my favorite things to do is guess about the people in my life based on what I know about them and how I think they would fall in these tests.
Beanie and Monkey Face - introverted until they know you and then so extroverted and precocious you are pretty sure that they will rule the world someday...and you wish there was a mute button available.
Bear - never met a stranger, extrovert, who has never, not even as a baby, needed a single person to entertain her in her life. I used to lose her under the furniture at 18 months old because she'd grab a toy or a book and hide away from everybody. (See above, how her momma can ignore people.)
My mommy - shy extrovert who says the craziest things that make people laugh right out loud. She does try to say that she's an introvert...but, well, I don't think so.
Several of my best friends...wives - total introverts who can make deep friendships that last for years within moments of sitting quietly and talking to someone that they ran across at a party that their extrovert husbands brought about.
Here are a couple of sites and tests to help you judge your friends and neighbors...muahahahaha
Jung Typology Test
5 Love Languages Test
I'm not going to link to the zodiac stuff because other than being a little interesting, I think it can head people into bad places. Besides there are a lot of cookie laden spam sites involved. So search that one at your own risk.
In the end I don't think any of us can be completely defined by any one classification. But I've had kind of a good time thinking about how I deal with things based not on the nurture of my parents but just on who God made me. How he shaped my personality and how he formed the ways that I am refreshed. It's also helped me to understand my kids a little better as they are faced with the day to day stressors of our lives.
Try it...it's like TOTALLY fun...
See ya around...
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