There are few things more frustrating than someone telling an extrovert that they are too much of a people person. Being social is as intrinsic to me as the fact that I have warm blood running through my veins, so to have that observation made kind of sucks.

How am I expected to change my personality?

Ever since I can remember, I’ve been affectionate and verbal with my feelings (case in point: the just-because handmade cards I passed out to my kindergarten classmates). Obviously, if I can’t break that habit a decade and a half later, it’s not an easy task.

But that’s my point: I shouldn’t feel obligated to change who I am, especially if the issue is that I like too many people. That’s like saying that someone does too many hours of community service, or they recycle too many plastic bottles. There’s never too much of that. Having love in your heart for others — no matter how deep or shallow those feelings may be — is not a bad thing.

My advice to those who receive this “criticism” is to brush it off. Embrace your love for others and don’t let yourself be shamed into thinking that you can only show genuine feelings for x amount of people. Science has yet to create a way for human beings to just turn their feelings off, so if you want to have 4,999 friends on Facebook and wish every single one of them "Happy Birthday," you do it! If you want to send thank-you notes to all of your professors, you do that! Appreciate those around you for all that they do. If you want to have a five-minute conversation with someone you’re standing next to in line, go for it! It’s another way to pass the wait time.

The next time that someone says something along the lines of "you like too many people," I'll just have to inform them that there are at least 30 people I haven't met yet, and that's not counting next week, or the week after that.