The first one was "stage lights shining"; admittedly not my finest photo, but I was intrigued when I saw that my post was fifth in Google search results for that phrase.
Another title was "agua de pipa", from my Costa Rica days (le sigh, those were the days). Apparently someone was hunting down real coconut water in Chicago Heights.
But the one that really put me over the top was "ode to andy roddick", where I show up fourth in Google search results. I like to think that, in some small way, my dedication to Andy Roddick's career is relevant.
Anyway, I digress. Before those discoveries, my intention was actually to digress on how I haven't even finished the introduction to "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking" and I already find myself nodding emphatically while I read. This isn't my first post on introversion and, while reading this book, it likely won't be my last.
Maybe this never happened to you in pre-college school days, but it was a recurring admonishment from my teachers. During parent-teacher conferences they'd always tell my parents how bright I was, but would frown upon the fact that I never volunteered in class. This happened from elementary school right through graduation.
The fact of the matter is that I almost always knew the answers. And I'd answer the questions in my own head. I just rarely felt the urge to speak aloud, generally only when everyone else was so far off base that I began to get frustrated.
I was performing well, sometimes nearly perfect, in classes. I wasn't socially inept. So why did it matter if I raised my hand and proved that I could speak answers as well as I wrote them? This is a classic trait of introverts. And schooling is one of the areas in life where the author states that the "extrovert ideal" has taken over.
Something that I found interesting in graduate school, where a large proportion of the class derived from Asia, was the cultural difference in introversion and extroversion. I vividly remember a conversation with one of my Korean classmates about how raising your hand and volunteering in class was considered brown-nosing when they were growing up. Quiet intelligence and leadership were more highly respected.
It's no secret to me that I'm an introvert, and most days I'm quite comfortable with that. But it is eye-opening to read a book from the perspective of how powerful and impactful introverts are in society. Instead of striving to meet the extrovert ideal, there are reasons to embrace being an introvert.
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