We introverts love you so much and have great compassion for what you are going through right now. This has got to be so incredibly difficult for you! We imagine you are 100% ready to go out and do things but are hesitant, knowing that it might be potentially unsafe for you and those around you. And even though we face the world in very different ways, we want so much to validate your experience and how much suffering you are going through right now.
So, here are some things we, as introverts, will try to do better for you during this time:
1. Try to answer your texts within the day. It might be hard to understand how you could possibly want to talk with more people after being on Zoom calls all day, but we do understand that you need interaction.
2. Accept your invitation as “just having fun.” We understand that it is completely comfortable for you to talk about various topics and really prefer to chit-chat. We also will try not to press you into the uncomfortable “deep conversations.” You simply want to connect.
3. We will attempt to gather (online or otherwise) with you and others at the same time. Be patient, this might take us many tries to get it right! However, we will commit to gathering in masses because we know you like to. We know that you, unlike us, like to interact with more than one person to fill up your “energy tank.”
4. We will be open to you “just calling to say hi.” Our difficulty in reaching out does not mean we don’t like you. We can commit to reaching out and letting you know we care about you when we cannot take your call.
5. We can call or text you periodically to reassure you. Our ability to show you that you are important to us is not always easy to see in our behavior. So, we will make an effort to show you we need you too.
The experiences you are going through right now are outside of your comfort zone and we can appreciate the efforts you are making to survive – something we completely understand since, as introverts living in our highly extroverted world, we are asked to stretch to fit in it every single day!
Please do not misunderstand. We love our extroverted friends! They push us beyond our perceived limits and make us better.
We hope you love us for the same reasons.
Sincerely and with much love,
~ Terra and the other introverts of this world