“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” — Aristotle.
School, the place that we enjoy and hate at the same time. I have always had an ambivalent relationship with my scolarity. Indeed, since the beginning, I never liked going to school but fancied learning new things and studying about different topics such as language learning or story writing. Maybe because I feel freer sited on my desk with my favorite books than at school surrounded by hundreds of people. It was not my favorite place to be, but it is what it is, and I knew that we are lucky to have the opportunity to learn and educate ourselves motivated by mentors and teachers.
I early learned to adapt and open myself a little more to others. In fact, I enjoyed it. Making friends, laughing with people of my age and after all, cheerfully going home. I know a lot of people today and love going out, I am far from being anti-social like what you might think of introverted people. Feeling great being both a reader and a party girl, being a little loud sometimes when I want to. I just think literally all the time, brainstorm a lot of ideas, worry a lot too, or both it depends on the time and need some space to rest after all these activities. The main issue is during class, with teachers. The school system had always seemed a little shallow to me; mainly focused on grades and students with outgoing personalities forgetting every other thing we are passionate or talented about. I found something fun to describe it; called it the five rules for being a successful student✨:
- Focus on your grades and only your grades.
- Be the best at everything, every school subject.
- Learn what school wants you to learn, do not waste your time on other activities.
- Be an outgoing and extroverted student, make your classmates and teachers notice that you are here and that you know what they are talking about.
- Be the one who participate the most and give the most answers to open questions.
It might sound a little sarcastic but in fact it is true. If a teacher had a student like that, he would say that it is excellent, the perfect student. I had never been that perfect student or in some classes where I feel comfortable and passionate about what I am learning. Despite not loving school that much, my grades have always been great, my teachers still congratulate me for it; but there is one thing that was and still is a struggle: my quietness. Indeed, during the time, teachers always told my parents that I was shy or a daydreamer. Maybe I am a daydreamer, I agree with it, but I am not and never been shy or afraid of speaking. In fact I just do not have anything to say or need some space to think about what I am going to tell or what we are talking about (or the taco that I would like to eat tonight). More the time passed, more I felt strange, different, and worst, uninteresting.
One day, I was on the Internet, more specifically on Quora that I adore. It a question-answer platform where you can find informations from the community about literally anything, every question that crosses your mind. I was on my Quora account and found an answer about introversion. « What is the difference between being an introvert and being an extrovert? Or an ambivert?« It is complicated I agree, I thought so at the first time too.
Reading this post, I found out that I am not the only one, in fact many interesting people that we do not suspect are introverts. This classmate, family member, this funny neighbor or even teacher; they all may be introverts. From this day I read books about introversion and MBTI types, listen to podcasts and conferences such as Susan Cain’s TEDXTALK explaining the power of introverts and share experiences with people that are so close to me for a long time. From all these means I learned so much about myself, about what I am and what I should be proud of being. Accepting my personality because I cannot pretend to be someone else indefinitely, being confident with my ideas and what I want to share with people, breaking up with comparison because everyone is different and learning about my strengths, about what I can do and offer to the world.🤍
It is something that I chose to share with people that have or had the same interrogations as me by writing on my blog and sharing a lot of informations and funny memes about self-love and the introverted way of expressing ourselves on social medias. Introverted or ambivert people can feel ignored sometimes and conclude that they are boring. You are not weird or shy, you are just mostly focused on your inner world. You absolutely need to take care of that inner world that is entirely part of you because you can do such great things and bring such ideas to the world with it.💛
Eight famous introverts that you surely know:
- Albert Einstein
- Bill Gates
- Eleanor Roosevelt
- Elon Musk
- Emma Watson
- J.K. Rowling
- Meryl Streep
- Warren Buffet
Thank you for reading this article which was inspired by a question that someone asked me. As a French native speaker it is a little challenging to publish an article in a foreign language but after all, I am really happy to be able to share my thoughts with even more people. I hope that you enjoyed reading it and that you found it interesting. If so, do not hesitate to share me your opinion or even your story as an introverted/extroverted person at school/work by letting a comment or sending me a DM on Instagram. 🙂
On se retrouve vendredi pour le prochain épisode de Pensées féminines.💖
~Livelyxia~ 