Eternal sunshine of an introvert’s mind

We often see the world in black and white, as bulging extremes, a distinct red line between the normal and abnormal. Cancelled plans, isolation and social detachment, therefore, stick to the chronic stereotype of introversion.

However, in a world as spectral as ours, there is little that is tailored towards such polarised pigeonholes. Introversion unfolds beyond a pop culture bandwagon and the ‘asocial’ cookie cutter image. It is instead the panoramic ability to savour individuality, to stand as striking contradictions against the world that you are in — revelling in life at its core but also with a telling peripheral vision. 

To a vast majority of the world, high school is best when, instead of droning lectures or mind-excruciating problem sets, we find ourselves in the midst of grappling debates, all-encompassing discussions and long-awaited group projects. Ironically enough, some of us yearn for ‘boring’ things. In the subculture of introverts, we hold sermons — praying that we’re not picked on or thrown into a six-week unfamiliar group project. Not because we settle in terror at the mere thought of interaction, but because we find comfort within ourselves. We overcome the most aching intellectual challenges in solitude. As the world morphs into an assailant against tranquillity, it is the introvert’s internal mechanisms that retreat to imagination, to the dissolving landscapes of the mind.

At the end of this defining red tape, however, being a teenage introvert means reaching for shade in the fluorescent lights of an extrovert’s amusement park. In the overarching timeline of our lives, popularity will never saturate our world as greatly as it does in these four years. It becomes, therefore, a tough call to tackle, almost conflicting to reconcile in our inward ways when the most visible personalities in our lives attempt the opposite. Adorned with 96 birthdays, yearly trips and eight of the best and most exhausting hours of the day, there remains little peace in the quintessential high-school life. But despite being asked to “speak up” or “make your mind escape from wandering clouds”, there is no blanket definition for introverts, no wrong in being a contradiction. There is nothing reclusive in choosing Jane Austen over Coldplay. And a Saturday night of watching Friends on Netflix doesn’t make you a hermit. Being introverted makes you wholeheartedly seek bliss in every moment with headphones — whether that is to avoid draining social labyrinths, recharge or introspect. 

Introversion is often shoved under the umbrella terms of “nerd” and “shy”.  I, however, see futility in forming clique-like generalisations. Instead, every person settles on an over-reaching spectrum — without which we would simply be standalones at one edge of two elastic extremes. The labels that hang over us serve as inconclusive reminders of misinterpreted personalities and otherwise distinct traits. 

Although we find ourselves listening more often than speaking, the life of an introvert is not alienated, let alone supressed. The resolve to “shyness” thaws in a small group almost as quickly as it emerges in large ones. There is a simplistic pleasure in introspection and self-resolve. Our often-sardonic nature is not a plight against humanity but a need to reenergize — to seek comfort and rest in seclusion. 

As an introvert, we can be as impulsive as we are calculated or as loud as we are quiet. There are certain intricacies and paradoxes that become an inherent part of you. I am grateful to be an introvert, to have the opportunity to learn by my own thinking, to bear completely individual perspectives and outlooks. Being an introvert allows you to endeavour through high-school hallways with distinct self-awareness, with an almost full understanding of your self.

Breaking myths 

Introversion is often shoved under the umbrella terms of ‘nerd’ and ‘shy’. But despite being asked to ‘speak up’ or ‘make your mind escape from wandering clouds’, there is no blanket definition for introverts, no wrong in being a contradiction. There is nothing reclusive in choosing Jane Austen over Coldplay. And a Saturday night of watching Friends on Netflix doesn’t make a person a hermit. 

The author is a Class 10 student of Oberoi International School, Mumbai, who has found the importance of rhetoric, prose and information in countering social injustice