I'm not sure if anyone knows this or not, but being an introvert is just as okay as being an extrovert.

We all basically praise extroverts nowadays. Why wouldn't we? Why wouldn't we try our hardest to be like the people with a vast majority of friends? The people that know how to mentally handle themselves in a crowd? Working together in groups is the only way to bring promising results?

What a tired, outdated rhetoric.

The truth is, almost half of the world doesn't agree. Personally, I don't feel that way at all.

My friends would go out every single weekend, but I prefer to stay in alone. I would see people scrambling to study together for an important test, but I prefer to study alone. I was starting to think that something was wrong with me.

But guess what? Nothing is wrong with me. I am an introvert. If you are too, welcome to the club of preferred loneliness.

That doesn't mean that I don't genuinely enjoy going out and hanging out with my friends, of course not! I simply don't get the most value from my life when I am at a huge party with a crowd of over 250 people.

The world is a busy place and unless you take a moment to step away from it once in a while, it's easy to forget how nice it is to simply sit alone and enjoy your own company.

Sometimes I like to sit alone in a dark room and just...listen. Listen to everything that is not happening around you. You can learn a lot about yourself in moments like these. The times when there is nothing to distract you from the thoughts and feelings that you try to shake away on days when you're too busy.

When you're alone, you have the perfect opportunity to think clearly about your life and the direction you want to take it in. In a world that's often filled with noise, you've been given some peace and quiet. Now you can sit, and evaluate the path that your life is going to take.

Are you happy and fulfilled? Should you keep on doing what you're doing? Or are you feeling unsatisfied? Are you feeling betrayed by your own actions? Should you change something?

These are questions you can only answer when you take advantage of this gift of quiet.

Being alone is okay. Everything about loneliness is okay. Do not let anyone, and I mean ANYONE tell you different.

Don't be sorry if you know that I'm lonely. I do it to myself. I put one foot in front of the other, and it just so happens that I'm at the wrong place at the wrong time. But I will learn and grow from it.

"Loneliness feels like such a shameful experience, so counter to the lives we are supposed to lead, that it becomes increasingly inadmissible, a taboo state whose confession seems destined to cause others to turn and flee." — Olivia Laing