I am an introvert. Hard for some to believe, but it’s true. I’m so thrilled a Facebook friend sent along some reading on this when I realized he was a fellow introvert. This 2003 article from The Atlantic — titled “Caring for Your Introvert” — by Jonathan Rauch says so much that resonates with me and brought me such joy:

Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate? Who growls or scowls or grunts or winces when accosted with pleasantries by people who are just trying to be nice?

If so, do you tell this person he is “too serious,” or ask if he is okay? Regard him as aloof, arrogant, rude? Redouble your efforts to draw him out? (Read the rest of the article here.)

In a later interview with Rauch, also in The Atlantic, I enjoyed this:

But once an introvert gets on a subject that they know about or care about or that intrigues them intellectually … they get passionately engaged and turned on by the conversation. But it’s not socializing that’s going on there. It’s learning or teaching or analyzing, which involves, I’m convinced, a whole different part of the brain from the socializing part.

It explains so much!