Introverts Unite (At Your Own Separate Locations)

I have a man who is in charge of recruiting at a college frequently complain to me about Facebook and how he doesn’t like/understand it. I find this extremely amusing and somewhat tragic as he’s a recruiter at a college. Since 99.9% of all college-going kids are going to be on Facebook you’d think he’d be learning all he could about the elusive Facebook on the ever more elusive interwebz because it is a tool that can help make him look better at his job.

Alas, he is ever stubborn about refusing to participate in that fad the kids call the Facebook. It doesn’t stop me from reminding him how ironic it is as a recruiter that he refuses to use a powerful recruiting tool.

But I digress.

What I set out to talk about was Facebook. More specifically how I appreciate Facebook for linking me to article I would never have sought out on my own. Take a recent article on the HuffPo about how to interact with introverts.

It includes a neat infograph/comic that describes how to understand introverts and being an introvert myself, I jumped for joy. Plus I felt like it gave me a lot of insight into how I deal with people.

The gist of the article, which is info a lot of you probably already know, is that extroverts gain their energy being around people while introverts generate their own energy being alone. So an introvert values that energy as precious and doesn’t want to waste it on unnecessary interactions. One of my favorite parts of the infograph.

via Huffington Post (Roman Jones)

When I’m in a conversation I feel like is a “just to talk” and not that the person actually cares that I listen to the words they’re saying, I do feel this angst/anxiety to exit quickly. It does wear me out to have these interactions. Not that I don’t want them. But I think understanding this about myself can promote a better relationship between those friends of mine who are extroverts and me.

If you have introverts in your life or are one yourself, I highly recommend checking out the full article, especially the infograph.

That’s not to say I don’t like extroverts, even though they do steal my energy. For me it’s usually a mostly equal trade off. Extroverts help me get out of my shell (or hamster ball) a little bit and typically allow me to be a little more silly and goofy with them. That’s particularly why I like the variety of personalities and people in the world. It would be too dull if we were all the same or even similar enough.

My own two cents to the extroverts is to be cool if us introverts just don’t want to chat. It’s not that we don’t like your or want to hear about your stuff, but we may be low on energy and need to recharge.

So are you an introvert or extrovert? Did you find the article helpful? What advice would you give to an extrovert dealing with an introvert or vice versa? Especially you extroverts. What advice do you have for us introverts? Let us all know below.

You’ve Gotta Work At It

I work at a business college of sorts when I’m not gallivanting off to take people on vacations, so I’m around a lot of 20-somethings. And these 20-somethings are the might-still-be-18 or just-turned-20-somethings. Young is my point. Sometimes they seem really young.

But as I writer I think it’s supremely important to eavesdrop on as many conversations as you can, more especially when they occur in your vicinity and you didn’t even have to seek them out. This particular conversation wasn’t hard to eavesdrop on, not only because it was happening behind me prior to the beginning of a forum, but also because they were loud talkers.

It was a girl and a guy. The girl spoke of her high school years, which happened waaaaaay back in 2013. She was the star athlete of her tennis team. She had actually transferred to that high school, but because she played tennis so well, they put her on the team and she was the top player.

She mentioned how her school probably, like, totally sucked. Like, they just wanted her because she knew how to play and that made her look good in comparison.

I truly believe she believes she wasn’t that good at tennis in a general sense, but she was probably hamming it up a bit to feign modesty for the guy she was trying to impress.

But it was something she said that really struck me that almost made me turn around and correct her, but a) then they’d know how much I’d been eavesdropping and b) I doubt they would have cared what I had to say anyway.

She said something like:

I’m honestly not that talented. I just worked hard. I practiced like 4 hours a day and practiced really hard and that’s why I was any good at playing. But I wasn’t born with talent like some people.

I won’t do the all caps on you, so just imagine this next bit is me yelling passionately, but I wanted to say to her: talent is nothing without effort. Do you really believe someone like Serena Williams got to where she was today because she picked up a racquet and discovered she was suddenly a pro tennis player. She may have had a natural ability to learn quicker than most, but I can guarantee you she was out there busting her butt, probably harder than anyone before her to get where she is today. True talent comes from hard work. You’ll never be very good at anything if you don’t put in gut-wrenching effort!!!

I know this is an attitude prevalent among our society. That anything you have to make effort doing means you lack that talent. I know for a fact there are many aspiring writers out there who believe they just write and liquid gold pumps out of their keyboards onto the screen. We probably all still have that attitude a little bit when we scoff at editing our work. Even though I know editing has made my writing a bajillion times better than before, both then and now and in the future, sometimes I still just want to be lazy.

But even to get as far as I am today, I had to work hard at it. And the thing is, if you put in efforts to magnify whatever talent you have, you increase the amount of it.

So my dear 2013 high school graduate, the fact is you are talented at tennis precisely because you worked at it.

You’ve gotta work at it. You’ve gotta work at anything you want to be the best at. Many articles say it takes about 10,000 hours to master something, which means unless you’ve already spent 8 hours a day for 5 years of productively doing something, you can’t call yourself a master.

Sure, there are people who haven’t put in this time who get far or in a writing case, get published. But if they truly want to master their craft (and they should) the improvements should continue on. My own personal goal is to always do better than my last project, which is honestly why Book 2 is killing me. But I’ll get there, because I’m working hard.

Hard work is the answer. Hard work gets us there. Hard works makes our talent shine.

Have you noticed an attitude of ‘born gifted’ around you? What would you have said to Miss Tennis Player? Have you noticed your own talents improve because of the hard work you put in? Anything else you would add?

There and Back Again

Seriously I feel a bit like Bilbo Baggins.

The tour company was like the perpetual wizard leaving a perpetual mark on a perpetual door for a perpetual burglar to join a crew of perpetual dwarves.

The wizard was a tour company. But instead of a burglar, they needed a tour guide, and in the words of Justin Timberlake, “iz gonna be mayyy…” So sally forth I went, into the sunset. And as it turns out I found some amazing sunsets.

Sunset in the Grand Canyon.

But that’s besides the point. Is taking people on vacation for a living fun? Why yes. Yes it is. Does it also sometimes suck? Why yes. Yes it can. Quite a lot. But I figure that’s life anyway. Or as they say, all sunshine makes a desert and all rain makes a marsh. It’s a balance of both that makes a lush garden.

Oh, didn’t I mention another dream I’m currently pursuing is tour guiding? Some of you knew, I think. Now all of you do. I always thought if I could travel and write for a living that would be a good life. We’ll see if that yields true. So far I feel like there’s so much to the tour gig I don’t have as much time for writing when I’m doing it. Though I did think a lot about story and plot. And I really do enjoy thinking.

But having taken quite a long hiatus from blogging, I’ve tried to rekindle my motivation for doing this. And if we’re being honest, I still haven’t gotten to full flame readiness. The thing is I like all of you people and it’s hard to stay away. So I don’t know what the future of Lit and Scribbles is blogwise, but it’s evolving. I may even try occasional vlogging (after all, I have Gloria’s example to follow).

I’ll probably be discussing the six weeks of travel, I’m getting back into Row80, because life feels empty without goals, and I’ll see whatever tidbits I can throw this way, but my current blogging goal is a Tuesday/Thursday post, with a Wednesday Row update in between. That’s all the chunk I can bite off for now.

So what were you up to this summer? Follow any dreams? Accomplish some major goals? What do you do to stay motivated with blogging?

Spiders? Ick!

Last night I was over at a friend’s house for our weekly viewing of Farscape episodes. We both munched on a couple of Jimmy John’s #6, the veggie. I don’t know what it is about that sandwich, but I do love it. Not that I have a problem with meat.

Oh Jimmy John’s, how I am addicted to thee! *sigh*

Anyway, I stood up, and THANK goodness I did because the itsy bitsy spider climbed right up over the couch. Jae did a squeal and the spider ran down the couch.

Kind of felt like this. (@_@)

Of course in my mind when there isn’t a spider around, I totally think I’m like this.

And I do have the Batman-gonna-bring-some-hurt-on-this-spider spirit in me, cuz as much as those eight-legged critters make me squeal they make me kill. Kill immediately. KILL NOW!!!

Usually I flush them down the toilet for good measure, all the while saying in a pirate voice: “Say hi tar’ Davey Jones fer me ya filthy vermut!”

But what did my friend want to do? Catch it. CATCH IT?!?!

You people are INSANE! INSANE I tell YOU!

Okay, so she wanted to catch it to know if it was a brown recluse because those suckers are dangerous and it can be a bit of a problem. But still. Who wants to spend time messing with a spider that’s as quick as Speedy Gonzalez running all over the couch when it could be in the toilet and out of the house quicker than you can say “nuke the arachnids!”

Was it a recluse spider? We may never know. It’s not like spiders hold still when you have them captured in a jar. (Captured in a jar?! Nuke it, flush it, squish it, DESTROY IT!!!!!!)

They are watching and waiting for that moment when they can burst out of the jar and kill you.

One mistake.

That’s all they need.

Do you love spiders? Hate them? Have they ever interrupted a movie? Have they ever interrupted you period? How do you like to dispose of the devil’s spawn?

Jae NOTE: Okay, I hate spiders a lot, but I would never wish them completely gone. I know they kill a lot of things I don’t like. Mosquitos for instance. But that doesn’t mean I have to like them.

No Sugar Please

I’ve been supremely absent. I know. It’s a motivation thing. And a time thing. Unfortunately it is not a space time thing. That would mean I’ve been gallivanting off with a certain Doctor. And I weep for that loss.

Anyways, while I’ve been not blogging, I’ve been trying something out off and on. Mostly on. That is the no sugar diet. And what I mean by that is probably no sugar added diet, or no unnatural sugar diet.

How is it going?

Okay, that’s not entirely accurate. But I do get the cravings for one certain sugar-filled item.

I know, I’m hungry too. But I did come up with a sort of solution for that. Homemade tootsie rolls made with…………………………………………………….

HONEY!