A personality trait has been bugging me a lot for some time now. Introversion. A lack in the urge to reach out to people, hesitation to open up the mind to people around. Mostly silent. Reserved. The constant urge to recoil and retract within oneself although the mind might be full of ideas, the heart full of feelings and emotions. End result – loneliness amidst the crowd, being left-out, unnoticed and all these leading to may be something worse – depression! Many a times an introvert person is also misinterpreted to be too proud about oneself and unfriendly… especially when s/he is talented and full of potential. Friends tend to arrive at a conclusion that s/he does not want to share knowledge and they too tend to shy away from him/her  thus further aggravating the persons tendency to recoil & retract into a shell. Whereas deep down inside the person probably could be a great friend-philosopher-guide to someone who confides in him/her.

The person may be having a sibling or a friend who has just the opposite personality traits – talkative, surrounded by friends all the time, calls from friends on his/her mobile never stopping, actively involved in several social circles/clubs, extrovert, always in demand among friends. The extrovert person’s charisma may or may not give rise to some jealousy in the introvert person’s mind but that does create some complexes and further enhances the latter’s feeling of being left out.

But these traits are all natural. In-born. The way a person is born extrovert and friendly, another is born as introvert and reserved. I do not wish to say ‘unfriendly’. The way a person is born to be an athlete, another is born to create magic with their fingers and be an artist. I am sure the thinking and imagination of both these types of people works differently and equally different would be there personality traits.

Given the facts, what bugs me is that why an introvert person needs to be deprived of the ‘luxury’ to open up the mind to a friend and relieve oneself of all the stress and anxiety that s/he might be undergoing inside the outer crust of one’s shell. Why can’t s/he share a big laugh by cracking a joke with people around. Why they always  brood over how to start a conversation or even at times whether to start a conversation at all!

And most helpless they seem to be when a brilliant, intelligent and reasonably smart fellow among these introverts gets into a job that requires lots of networking and relationships to be maintained. They possess all the intelligence and competence befitting the requirements of the job, but the inherent personality trait limits them from building that wide network or that great relationship through soft skills that is so vital in personal as well as professional lives nowadays. They remain short of becoming that great performer at work or the jovial & lively chap at home.

What can that ‘brilliant, intelligent and reasonably smart yet introvert’ person could have done to have few more friends to chat and confide in, to have his/her cell phone ringing a few more times from calls of his friends, to become a should not be left out member in the neighbors’ group picnic…. ? Which part of his personality, his strength could he have worked upon to do away with the loneliness or at least the thought of being lonely!

 May friends surround the lonely one and help him deliver his best!