Forgotten Principles: Taking Care of the Introvert Within

I ride the line hard between introvert and extrovert.

I adore time spent in PLAYPLAYPLAY with friends and family and strangers alike, but if I don't get time to myself, all my nuts and bolts start trailing behind me in a hellblaze, and I usually end up crying somewhere public. (Same goes for Undersocialized Jamie).

In high school this need was only partially satisfied, but I didn't fully recognize either my needs or the fact that there was a way that could satisfy them.

Every day, I'd arrive home somewhere around 3:30ish, putz about the house, maybe make a snack (apple, yogurt, almonds) or go for a short bike ride with my best friend Haley.

Then, promptly at 4, I'd plop down in the gameroom, turn on ABC family, and watch Gilmore Girls for an hour in a sort of coma. During this hour, any attempt at interaction with me would prove to be both futile and hostile.

If I got this time, I was more likely to behave as a human being for the remainder of the evening and next day.

In college, after a year or so crash-coursing how to take care of myself well, I realized that I could be hardcore social and academic if I disappeared every Saturday.

It wasn't enough to hide out in my room because you could hear straight through the walls and I lived with a few hundred other girls, so peace wasn't even feasible. No way.

So, every Saturday, I packed a full bag of homework and drove to Arsagas (now Onyx Coffee Lab) on the border between Tontitown and Springdale with Bess, my car and only acceptable Saturday companion.

Despite the fact that coffee shops have other people in them, I didn't know those people, so it counts as introvert time. Not the most preferred option, but delicious in comparison to the alternative.

For the next 8 or so hours (however long I could go until my stomach growled so loudly it alarmed other people), I would study by myself, drinking coffee (I'm so slow at coffee drinking that it usually lasted my stay), and just enjoying not being around "my people,"

Then, satisfied, I would drive home to hang out with my friends.

Every Saturday.

Maybe it was because I didn't get enough sociality to consider my Saturday outing important, but I have not deliberately spent time by myself for a very long time, until today.

Introvert Friday has consisted of laundry, kitchen cleaning, sheets changing, vacuuming, email answering, extracurricular reading, content developing, cooking, and now blogging. In short, it has been productive and fulfilling.

It is not my belief that I could do this every day, but when I don't make that time a priority, I also lose my ability and stamina and desire to even try the rest of the week.

It's different than Sabbath. It's like anti-Sabbath obligatory selfishness. It's a big beautiful chunk of unstructured structure with thick homework icing on the top. YUM. The nerdy introvert life is so good.