{introversion}

It is 5:59 a.m.  I've been awake since, I think 3:37 a.m.  Daughter Allie left this morning for Washington D.C.  It's the 8th grade trip, and she had to report to school at 4:30 a.m.  The buses were to leave at 5 a.m., but alas, one child, or perhaps his parent, or perhaps both, was running late, so the departure was postponed 30 minutes.  I guess there's one in every crowd. . .at least one. . .



Speaking of crowds, I listened to this recently:  The Power of Introverts.  I am not one to spend more than a few minutes listening to stuff on the internet.  I don't have the world's longest attention span, therefore the [I think] 19 minutes was a stretch for me.  I believe Susan Cain is my new hero.  Maybe not hero, but she's now on the list of the 4 people I'd invite to a dinner party.  


Introverts get a bad rap, at least in my opinion.  Being labeled as {quiet} means you are looked over and talked over and promoted over.  Here's a quote by Susan Cain:

"I believe that introverts living under the Extrovert Ideal are like women in a man’s world, and that introverts today are roughly where Western women were in the 1950s and 60s – too often discounted because of an attribute that goes to the core of who they are, but poised on the edge of great change. "

A woman wrote to Susan: 

“I pursued a promotion at work and was told ‘You’re smart, you have great ideas, and you have done great things for our hospital. Unfortunately you are too quiet for the job.’ I am a nurse, I just obtained my Master’s in nursing administration and I have a research paper that has been submitted for publication in an international nursing journal. It frustrates me that I have to fight tooth and nail for everything simply because I am ‘quiet.’” 

I am proud of my kids for many reasons, and quite frankly people that constantly share lovely tales about their kids annoy me.  So, in risk of annoying myself, and possibly you, the reader, I will share this:


One of the things that makes me the proudest or shall we say, most pleased with my kids, is their love of being alone.  Daughter Allie can read.and.read.and.read uninterrupted.  While she's a television lover and socially normalized and not really as introverted as the rest of the family, she can sit in her room with her Smash book and create for hours.  Last Saturday, while at son Jamie's All District Jazz Band performance, the guest conductor commented that he has to make his son, a current Julliard student, STOP practicing his instrument.  Every now and then he needs a break.  FLASHING LIGHTS!!!  Jamie can spend hours upon hours alone with his guitar or drum pad or recorder [not really the recorder].  


I guess what I'm saying is I think it's okay to be a librarian.  [It's early, please bare with me.]  It just seems the same people get rewarded over and over, often because they are loud or opinionated or have the so called leadership qualities that the world deems as positive.  I received the quarterly mailing from the college in which I graduated.  The same folks receive alumni awards that received accolades in school.  And they're generally not [the wallflowers].  Incidentally, I really like The Wallflowers, but that's another topic altogether. . . Again, it's early.


Assumptions can hurt people.  The lyrics of Kelly Clarkson's Mr. Know It All have run through my mind the past few weeks.  Do we care to really know people or are we know.it.alls?  People want us to be something they want us to be.  Or they so often, ignore us.  It seems this is something I can't get away from, as I've blogged on it before:  Who I Am
 
I placed a library hold on Susan Cain's book.   I'm looking forward to reading it.  Alone.  While the rest of the family reads or practices guitar or creates in a Smash book.