I like to say I am an at-heart extrovert. Textbook definition of personality type ENFJ. I am that girl who enjoys recruitment because she gets to meet new people. I can talk to people easily and make new friends smoothly. Meeting new people? I love it. Introducing myself to others? Not a problem. Keeping up small talk? Easy.

Truly opening up to others about myself? A problem.

While we may see so many familiar faces and talk to many people, at times we can feel like the lonliest people. Although we talk to these people and are excited all the time, we never fully reveal our true self.

It’s easy to stay surface level with others. Instead of becoming vulnerable and talking about important things we look past them and keep it light. We are able to just laugh and smile our way through conversations.

Another common problem that I believe us extroverts face is spreading ourselves too thin. We feel as though we can never say no to things and love to help others. We love to be involved and go to things, however, we exhaust ourselves. We don’t give ourselves the time we need to catch up and rest. We distract ourselves by staying busy. Instead of dealing with problems we have, we fill up our schedules to stay busy and not think about the difficult aspects in life.

We seem like we always have it together. We almost never do. We always seem so confident and happy. We never fully are. We continually exhaust ourselves to put on a front that we can never maintain.

So to all my fellow extroverts out there, know that it is okay to not be okay. It is okay to say no to certain things, and it is okay to take a break and take time for yourself. You can’t and will not be able to do everything. And in the end, that is okay.