Are we born this way?

As I watched my year old cousin overwhelmed by everyone in the room, avoiding eye contact and finding comfort with sponge numbers, I asked my aunt, “He is such an introvert, huh? Was I like that?”

She told me I was a bit of both. I was an extrovert with people but I knew how to play on my own. I mused with a friend, I might appear to be a people-person; acquaintances usually believe I am.

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

I hide. I hide to my advantage. I hide in public with my cuppa, a book and journal. I hide because it is the oxygen that I need. I hide so that I can be the best extrovert.

To some extend, we are born this way. Shouldn’t this make staying alive easier? Honouring it and moving on with it? As opposed to fighting it?

I have come to learn, most people care about the product. So hide with the simplest words, “No.”