When I was younger

Introvert was not how

I described me

I was a loner

Slow to make friends

I could spend hours

Away from the maddening crowd

Though from my perspective

Two plus me equaled a crowd

Especially if the two were strangers

My mother

The consummate extrovert

Did not understand

Her eldest child

Why she was so withdrawn

Almost sullen

I suppose that’s how it seemed

Years later

On my own and married

My husband, in the early days

Would search for me

Find me alone in another room

Happily contemplating nothing

“What’s wrong?’

He would ask

“Nothing”

I would reply

He finally figured it out

My extreme extroverted husband

Who would speed up on the freeway

To catch up with a familiar face

In a passing car

Just to wave hello

I don’t know if he ever named “it”

But he came to realize

I wasn’t trying to get away from him

I was trying to get to me

What I discovered

After Mom and before Marriage

Was the me I was

Hidden in a word

Introvert

Not shy, Not reserved, not withdrawn, not sullen

Introvert

I am the energizer bunny

Who energizes from the inside out

I only need me to rev my engines

To take on any day

Not a crowd of people

Laughing and talking and slapping each other on the back

Just me

Silently I take in the world around me

Comfortable with the quietness

Of an empty space

I turn inward

And thrive

 

p.s. “Introverts are capable of acting like extroverts for the sake of work they consider important, people they love, or anything they value highly.” ~ Susan Cain

YEP!