This morning I woke up at 9 o’clock to the warm, cozy smell of hot chocolate and the soothing sound of the creak that flows down right next to my apartment. For a Sunday, 9 a.m. is pretty early. I ate some scrambled eggs, delicious white bread, and also drank some dark, foamy chocolate. After eating a breakfast that I only have enough time to eat on weekends, I grabbed my laptop, sat on the soft, comfy blue couch, and got to work. As I began to type down the beginning of this essay I thought of introversion, and of how to express the disadvantages of being an introvert. As I thought of all this I knew exactly what to do, and so, I decided to do a little bit of research. I looked up different job openings and the requirements needed to get certain jobs –I actually searched for jobs like “support engineer” and “assistant manager” at companies like Ericsson and Coca-Cola–. Every single job opening I found had many requirements –of course– like “administrative skills”, or “planning and organizing skills”. These are obviously important for many corporate jobs. But I also found that every single job required being good at “working with people”, or having “people skills”. These basically translate to being social, or extrovert at least. Why do I have to be social to have a good job? To me it makes no sense that to be good at something I must be an extrovert. Of course, someone working in sales needs to be good at talking to people and persuading them at buying things. But an engineer? If I was an engineer I’d probably be better if I was an introvert.

          For the record, I consider myself an introvert. I feel that, because of this introversion I have, I dedicate more time to thinking, and planning, and focusing on important things, and these are great qualities for any job. So my point is that introverts are very valuable, and today’s society undervalues the potential in introverts and prizes that of extroverts, when everyone’s qualities and flaws should be appreciated.

          I guess that if I’m going to talk about introverts and extroverts, I should define what these things mean to me, but I think I’ll just define them throughout the essay.

          A week ago I had to read a chapter of The Hobbit for an English assignment. The day before the reading was due, I had to go to the dentist but I had completely forgotten about it, so when my dad told me we had to leave I had no other choice than to grab my kindle and take it with me to the dentist. Holding the kindle in my hand I arrived to the waiting room of the dentistry with my dad and my sister. It was a large room with a couple of black, leathery sofas and a small coffee table. There was an older couple –about 60 years old– sitting on one of the sofas. As the introvert I am, I quickly sat on another sofa without even saying “hi” and began to read on the small screen of the kindle; they were complete strangers to me. Suddenly, before sitting down, my dad got a huge smile on his face and, in a very loud way, greeted the old man; apparently they knew each other. After a couple handshakes between the two of them, I noticed they had both gone silent. I felt this weird feeling inside me, like an intuition telling me that something was wrong. When I lifted my eyes up from the screen of my kindle, I saw everyone looking at me: my sister, my dad, and the old couple were looking at me as if they expected something from me. And finally I noticed what it was: it was my turn to say hi. Even though I would’ve rather kept reading, I greeted both the old man and the woman with a handshake to both of them –I have manners of course–. I immediately went back to Bilbo and the 13 dwarves, but then I noticed that had I completely lost focus of the reading. I didn’t even remember where I had left off. An introvert wouldn’t have even looked at the old couple, but an extrovert would’ve said hello, and probably would’ve started a conversation with them. My point is, because of this meaningless social interaction (greeting a couple of old people), I basically had to start the whole reading again. If an introvert can concentrate more, why should this be a flaw?

          Introverts are under-appreciated in our society; and, as an introvert, I’m going to show you this by using my life as an example. A while ago I went to a huge family reunion. In my family, huge means about 25 to 30 people. When I got to my grandma’s house, I didn’t even know half of the people there. I went into the living room and, after saying high to a bunch of people I didn’t know, I sat down on the comfy, spongy couch. I had a small group of family members, of about nine or ten of them, sitting down around me. The only persons I knew there were my 10-year-old sister and two younger cousins. Most of the living room was white: the walls, the carpet, the furniture, even the sofas we were sitting on. Everything was dead silent. I tried to look for something to distract myself with, but, besides of a couple of family pictures of my cousins and me, there was nothing to go with. After a couple of minutes that felt like hours, my sister and my younger cousins left, leaving me with a bunch of people who were just strangers to me. I was about to follow them and avoid the awkwardness, but then one of my family members decided it would be a good idea to start talking, and that is what she did. She had a weird accents when she talked, it sounded like a “paisa” (from Antioquia). She was talking to an older man; he was bald and had a thick, white beard. They began to talk about politics and current events while I just sat there, without saying a word. Later on they asked for my opinion, I just stated what I thought about whatever topic they wee discussing about and then went back to my silent routine. I began to drift off –thinking of other things, probably about school assignments, or about my friends, I can’t really recall right now– and, when they asked for my opinion for a second time, I didn’t have a clue of what they were talking about.

          Later that day, after dinner, some family members approached me and, with an almost exaggerated judging face, they told me I was shy. Believe me, I’m not shy. I may get bored easily, and I’m a pretty quiet person too; but that shouldn’t be mistaken with being shy. Although sometimes I do get nervous for speaking in public, most people I know do as well. Anyway, it doesn’t matter if I’m shy or not; that shouldn’t be an issue. Shy people have much to offer, just like introverts and extroverts as well.

          I like spending time alone, especially when it’s with nature. Every year, my school takes the entire class on a hike to a different place of our country (Colombia) or to other parts of the world. A month ago we went on a trip to a mountain range called La Sierra Nevada del Cocuy. It was a very difficult hike but it was completely worth it. I walked for hours and hours; it felt like the walking would never end. As I climbed up the rough rocks and felt the strong, freezing wind against my face, I began to think. I thought about simple things, like what I would do when I got back to camp; and I also thought of complex, deep things, like the beginning of the universe, or where we come from. I met the conclusion that we’ll never know any of these answers no matter how much we think about them, but that’s not really relevant. I remember feeling extreme cold climbing up my fingers every time I touched a rocky wall –because of the height– and extreme heat coming from deep inside my chest –because of the long, tiring walks– at the same time. I walked and began to warm up, but then, when I stopped to rest all the air around me suddenly got freezing cold all over again. I would even begin to shiver, so I would throw more clothes on and, when I began to walk again, I would burn up. The only reason I bore through the heat and the cold was because of the incredible view. The view throughout the entire trail was unbelievable; it was spectacular. I saw huge mountain ranges everywhere, rivers that flowed down huge mountains, even snowy peaks so high they reached above the clouds. There were moments when I couldn’t believe my eyes. I remember stopping at one point and looking up to the white peak of the mountain. It seemed so far away. I couldn’t believe we were going up there. As we hiked up the steep mountainside many of my classmates talked and sang. I might’ve sung a couple of times, but not nearly as much as my fellow hikers. Sometimes everyone would be loud and everything would seem chaotic, but other times everyone just went quiet, and everything sit still. It was these times of peacefulness that I was able to enjoy the most. When no one spoke, when I felt the cold breeze against the back of my head, and when the only thing I could hear was the wind blowing against the trees like the hiss of a snake, and the repetitive sound of the boots of 20 people quietly marching through the mountainside. During those moments I was at peace, I was able to think without any distractions whatsoever.

          My friend Gabriel, he’s an extrovert. He may be just as weird as I am –or even weirder–, but he’s an extrovert. He does odd things all the time, like start shouting just for the hell of it, or beginning to talk about things that can get as odd as imaginary arguments with himself. Yesterday, for example, we (Gabriel and me) were in the middle of Spanish literature class, and while we were working, Gabriel was listening to music with his earplugs. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Gabriel just got up and started dancing. Right in the middle of class! I just couldn’t believe it. Anyway, the point is: even though Gabriel and me might be very odd people, he expresses it way much than I do. As an extrovert he expresses what he thinks and feels more openly than I do. This brings great qualities as well; he’s very social, he’s a good team-worker, and he enjoys talking to people. So, both Gabriel and me, being an extrovert and an introvert, have many qualities and many flaws as well, but that doesn’t make one better than the other. I feel that I can help others in other ways: I’m a good listener, I can focus more on important things, and I’m good when working alone as well. Sometimes extroverts like Gabriel don’t appreciate much introverts like me, even though introverts like me have great qualities to offer.

          I love silence, as you may have noticed, because it gives me time to be with myself and to think without getting distracted. I think this makes me more of an introvert than an extrovert. But people often mistake this with me being “shy” or “antisocial”. I don’t think any of these terms describe me, and, as an introvert, I feel I have much more to offer than just silence.