For winter break this year, this introvert gets to stay on campus. For this article, I am going to share what introverts go through when we are alone. No, we do not just shut down, stare into nothing and enter a power saver or recharge mode. Yes, we are "recharging" but not like a computer where we do not do much else. Instead, our "recharge" looks like a maze of adventure. When we wander around a place that is normally busy and it is empty we begin to see things differently and enjoy those places a little more.
This maze comes complete with a string tied at the entrance that we trail behind us, letting us know where we were coming from. Each person's maze starts a little differently, my maze often starts by putting myself in a lucid (or being, I do not have to be in my room in bed or tired to do it) sleep kind of mind state. To do this I close my eyes and just start thinking, after several minutes my mind wanders but my conscience can control a little bit. For example: when I put myself into lucid sleep, my mind takes me back to summer camp grounds and fills it with people, and a few people I actually know. My conscience takes me to the pop stand to get a "choco taco," there my mind brings across my path a friend and mentor Griffin. My conscience talks to him and then my mind throws me a curve-ball and I am saving the world from shadow-wraiths and my man Griffin is a human-griffin hybrid super human kind of person, which would be super cool. I snap out of my lucid dream to realize I need to use the toilet and then I get hungry. So I grumble and put my shorts, a t-shirt, slip on my shoes with no socks and then get frustrated because I can not find my wallet to buy said food.
Finally finding my wallet I leave my dorm, during winter break, I look around and listen for people and yet there is no person to hear. Instead, I hear the wind in the trees and birds chirp. I admire the stone work in the walk ways. And without being intentional, I slip into a lucid mind state. I "dream" of myself lounging in a hammock, enjoying the quite air, the grass beneath and the trees above. I dream of myself dreaming of an adventure in Narnia and meeting a Time Lord traveling through time and space. I circle back to wanting and food I realized I walked past where I wanted to go. Instead of just u-turning and going back to where I wanted to go, I keep walking at risk of looking weird even though no one is there. Then I wonder why I do not sit outside more than I do; then they start coming to mind, faceless bodies, on skateboards, and scooters, alone and in pairs, jocks walking and females jogging. People crowd my thoughts and that is why I stay inside.
Oh, the marvelous adventures I could have, sitting outside and never moving but traveling across time and space enjoying all adventures my re-charge mode provides. Now you know what at least one introvert does when they say the infamous "I need to re-charge." As always, I hardly the standard but verily I say I am not an extreme either.
