Someone (aka every living creature and movie ever created) once told me that college is a time for rediscovery. Well, here I am: a formally self-proclaimed truly extroverted extrovert, trying out life half inside a shell. I noticed after settling into my new routine that I really value time spent alone. During one of these “me, myself & I” moments, it crossed my mind that maybe I am no longer an extrovert (*GASP*). I grew up as a textbook chatterbox and I loved being around other people. What if that whole part of me blew away in the New Orleans humid breeze? As a part of finding a solution to this existential crisis, I enlisted my close friends and family via survey: Am I an introvert or an extrovert? The results were not that surprising. Generally speaking, friends I had known for nearly two decades called me an extrovert, as well as friends who I had made in the past month. The only difference is that people whom I have lived with (think immediate family, camp friends and roommate) concluded that I was some mix between the two. My dear mother sent me a link to an online quiz to help me resolve this consuming stress (Quietrev.com). Apparently, I am an ambivert. According to the World Wide Web, I am “a person whose personality has a balance of extrovert and introvert features.” However, this result did not make me feel at ease. Somehow it felt like a cop out and led me to this next question: why should I even care if I am an extrovert or an introvert? I thought about surveying my people again, but I decided that if I kept pestering them they might not agree to be my friends or family anymore. I did some thinking and began to inch closer to an understanding. The bulk of my experience with the actual terms “extrovert” and “introvert” came from online quizzes or magazines attempting to stick yet another label to me (Like yesterday when I found out that my zodiac dessert is pie). It might be a waste of otherwise useful time pondering what category I fit into. Perhaps these are just the new trendy buzzwords circulating the Internet, attempting to help me learn more about my inner self. For now, I am not am extrovert, ambivert, nor introvert. I am a content Jillian. And that is good enough for me.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Tulane chapter.