Glenbrook South is huge! Not necessarily in comparison to
other schools even in the area but it’s big! We all have pretty extensive
groups of friends but most of us stay within those groups. Admit it, if you
attend GBS you probably don’t know everyone in your graduating class. That’s
ok! If anyone were to know everyone in his or her class it wouldn’t be me.
Stop calling it shy.
Even though that is a valid point to make it’s a silly one.
A lot of people are shy and all for different reasons; personality, habit,
experiences, ect. Shy is an adjective that can be applied to a multitude of
circumstances and stories. There are very specific and purposeful reasons for
my “shyness” the biggest one having a perfectly logical explanation!
The article The
Creative Personality by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi thoroughly described ten traits
about creative minds. I found the article extremely insightful and thought
provoking, especially one point. He said that “Creative people tend to be both
extroverted and introverted” (Csikszentmihalyi). Let’s break that down!
The pure definition of extroverted is “an outgoing, overtly
expressive person”.
The pure definition of introverted is “a shy and renitent
person”
Csikzentmihalyi goes on to say that “extroversion and introversion are
considered the most stable personality traits that differentiate people from
each other and that can be reliable measured”.
So the question is how on earth can a person exhibit both at once?!
The answer is that it is uncomfortable. In my situation the introversion
part stems mostly from fear of judgment and pure, unfiltered awkwardness. The
extroverted part is easily explained by a want for people to know me and the
ideas I have about life! The biggest problem is that I have some kind of “wall”
that prevents the sharing of these ideas. I will very rarely raise my hand or
participate in class voluntarily even though I have a yearning to! It really
has created a war within me.
I'm not shy!
The most unfortunate part about all of this is that Mr. Csikszentmihalyi
(What a name!) did not discuss a coping solution to this problem, only the idea
that it exists. I think the biggest part of this is that the article only
described the creative mind, and didn’t suggest that there was anything wrong
with having the personality described. In fact it is important now more than
ever because the creative mind is being stifled! We need creative minds like
mine and maybe yours to speak out, which is ironically a problem for me!
I think what I really can learn from this and carry into my life is that
my ideas are important and worth it! I need to remember that merely existing on
this planet gives me license to grow and share just as much as any other
person. So you actually read this and do know me as one of the people in your
graduating class, feel free to push me out of my comfort zone and approach me.
Better yet, maybe I’ll even raise my hand in class! This really is an exiting
time in life where we as young people can be changed so radically! Being a
person who is both introverted and extroverted, I have a unique view of life
that many others cannot share with me. So which one is it? Only the winning
side will tell!
Gabbie, the way you wrote this blog post was awesome. You have a mind that lets itself wander, and it shows in this post, but somehow you wrap all of your wandering thoughts into one blog post that manages to make sense. It's very helpful that you define extroverted and introverted and then simply called it being uncomfortable. Everyone is awkward and uncomfortable at times and I'm pleased with the way you said it's mistakenly described as being shy. I really like this post, it was written very well.
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