Spending Time Like an Introvert: Sleeping

Hello Everyone,
Sorry for this month being a slow one for the blog, getting back into the school schedule can be difficult.  But now I am hoping to have everything figured out and I can just get back to blogging regularly.

So us introverts love many things: fandoms, books, TV shows, etc.  But there is one thing that all people love, both introverts and extroverts.  Something completely amazing.  Something so great that we dream about it while we aren't doing it. Incase you did not read the title, I am talking about sleeping.

Sleep can be so amazing, we just long for it all of the time.  But when the time comes for us to go to sleep, we fight it with everything we can.  This seems just like an oxymoron.

I have come up with a solution as to why we as humans might fight going to sleep. 

When I wake up in the morning, I don't want to get up because I have a full day filled with work I don't want to do before I can enjoy myself.  I work all day on things that other people want me to do.  But once I get this done, I have very little time to do what I want to do.  So I squish in bits of fun and pay for it in the morning when I slept so little.

Maybe this is just me, but I think that this is what most teens do.  If you have a different reason, I would love to here it!

Love,
Amanda

Spending Time Like An Introvert: Shopping

Like most girls my age, I will indulge myself in the pastime that is shopping. I am a lover of fashion and just pretty objects in general, thus shopping has always been a wonderful treat. However; there are several types of shoppers out there, and as an introvert, there are some things about shopping that can make one apprehensive. Shall we outline them?

1). Crowds

Personally, I do fine in crowds. They don't bother me as much as it does to some people, but sometimes crowds can be particularly annoying come winter time and other sale seasons. Prime example: Black Friday. Never again shall I take part in this capitalist  ritual. A hectic crowd can be just that: hectic. There's no room for thinking , and it's hard to focus as well. I would much rather have a store to myself where I can find the stuff I want in peace without having to wait in lines or maneuver through a crowd

2). Helpful Employees

After working as a sales associate, I have come to understand as to why other sales associate are so perky and just so helpful. If you're lucky, you'll come across a sales associate who knows how to keep their distance but is intuitive enough to know when  to throw a buoy when you're drowning in a sea of "I have know idea what I'm looking for".  Then, God bless them, there are the sales associate who are all up in your face with a wide smile and a voice two octaves higher than normal. Then again, I think that's just a mutual problem for everyone.

3). Going up to the cash register

This is something you grow out of eventually, but every once of a while there is that sense of apprehension lurking underneath the surface. There's something intimidating about going up to that tall counter. It's especially difficult if you're in a store like Hollister or Forever21 and the sales associate look really snooty or just uncaring, so any means of witty banter or awkward laughter are futile in soothing the wooden transaction.

4). Asking employees for help

It's a sad shame that the stores that I go into always have the really cool, hipster-esque blokes with their beanies, thick-rimmed glasses, and the taciturn-the-world-is-too-mainstream-so-I-have-to-look-somewhat-broody look on them. These are the kind of people I try to avoid, because I feel like I'm pestering them and it's like they really don't care, or sometimes I just don't want to go through the hassle of asking someone. Or maybe I should just avoid hipster-clothing stores... Either way, just aim for the nicest looking person and cross your fingers that they're helpful. Don't get me wrong, most clothing associates aren't mean it's just that they look really intimidating due to the coolness-vibes that reverberate off them, or maybe that's just me...Like I said I just need to avoid the hipster stores...

5). Not knowing how to browse

Learning how to shop on your own can be a bit of a challenge because I feel as if I'm missing a chunk of myself without my mom's guiding presence. Of course, I'd separate from her once we've landed in said store, but shopping without your mom in a 10 mile radius, is a whole different story. Solitary shopping has you wandering around a store in an awkward fashion i.e. sifting through racks without really processing what you're looking at and cordially refusing the help of a sales associate when in reality you have no idea what you want or where to start. The easy fix is just practice. Outline what stores you're going to and have a rough idea of what you want. It will make a world of difference. And don't be afraid to wait in the dressing room line, because I've learned  that nobody cares if you go in the dressing room more than once. There are much weirder people out in the world.

6). How to hold your shopping bag with grace

 If you take anything from this article today, let it be this: there is no way to hold your shopping bags gracefully. And if such etiquette exists, no one has given me the memo. For the memo-less among us, just hold your bag high! (Or low if that's suits your fancy). Just hold it how you want, because I've tried all  the different ways. Forget holding your bag in the crook of your arm because those straps can pretty much cut off circulation. Kicking your bags are also inevitable and forget about trying to avoid people. If you hit them, you hit them. My only advice is to double bag what you can and be on your way. 

Spending Time Like an Introvert: Studying

Hello Everyone,
Here is another instalment of spending time like an introvert.  I think most people will be able to relate to this post.

I found myself recently trying to remember what John J Pershing did exactly, or if that was even his name, and it dawned on me how much I hate studying.

Whenever I get a test back with a bad grade I mentally scold myself.  I tell myself that next time I will study for days, sleep well, eat a healthy breakfast, and ask questions.  But every time, somewhere between that day and the next test something changes. 

I get this idea in my head while I'm not at home, that today is the day to start being productive.  I plan out what I need to study and for how long. I then make a promise to myself that I can goof off in school because at home I will work hard.

Then I get home....

It's not that I don't want to study, it's that there are far better things for me to be doing.  And by better I mean funner. (that is not a word; maybe I should study more) So I say I will just study later.

Later never comes....

I then take the test knowing that something like this was mentioned but having no clue what the answer is. I sit and stare until something comes to me and just put that.

This is not my picture.

Now comparatively, I am a good student. I make all As and Bs, I just refuse to put that extra effort in.  So I really shouldn't complain.  But I know that for everyone, introvert and extroverts alike, doing things we hate is hard.  Just always try to remember the good that can come out of pushing yourself.

Love,
Amanda

Spending Time Like an Introvet: Reading

Hello Everyone,
I hope you all liked my last post on music, I'm hoping to make this into a series.  Let me know if you have any thing that you do for fun that I could write about as an introvert.

This time I will be talking about reading.  I love to read.  I wish I had more time to do it, but with homework and school it can be difficult.  Then when I do have free time I'm too tired to do the reading that I want to do.  So you could say that high school has killed my curiosity for finding new worlds. 

Now lets step away from the meldramaticness of that last line, and let me explain how I keep myself reading.  I am a member of the sight called Goodreads.  It is free, you can hook it up to Facebook and Amazon.  You can also set challenges for yourself.  This is what I do.  Each year I try to add a few more books to my amount, and complete it before the time is done.  If you want you can friend me: Amanda LaCorte. 

I also join groups on there.  Those groups recommend books, and have discussions about them.  I have joined groups that read books that I like, so I am always staying interested. 

I love reading and this website has allowed me to stay even more interested in it. Please enjoy!

Love,
Amanda

Spending Time Like an Introvert: Music

Hello everyone,

One of our segments for this blog is going to be called Spending Time Like an Introvert.  This is mostly about different activities that we enjoy doing as our little introverted selves.  So the first one I would like to write about is music and how my music taste has developed.

Now I know that everyone listens to some kind of music, I mean it's one of the main reasons I stay an introvert.  I always have this beautiful and personal thing to fall back on after society hurts me time after time.  My journey has been an interesting, crazy time.  I was thinking back to how much it has changed over the past four years when I started thinking about classics and how they too have changed. 

When we think back to the music our parents listened to it was so amazing.  It has originality and that sound is just.... It will never grow old.  But today's classics are not that way.  Alyssa and I both listen to different types of music, neither of which are the popular music that is played on the radio.  She has a hand in almost every type of music: indie, k-pop, alternative, pop.  I listen to a more exact list: alternative, classic rock, soundtracks, and folk. (I know its odd combination.) Our music won't be thought of when the next generation is old and looking back on what we did.  This make me sad to think that one day my children might look up at me and ask if I listened to Miley Cyrus since I grew up in the 2000s.  So for everyone to not forget that their are other types of music out there, here is the way I came to loving the music I listen to now.

It all started in middle school. Before that all I listened to was Christian music because that what my parents had, and books on tape because I was a weird kid.  But in middle school I grabbed a new taste, or should I say I found someone else's music to listen to.  My best friend was awesome, popular, and everything I wasn't.  We went to a very small school, so it was not really that odd that the most popular girl there and the class nerd hung out every day.  I can say now that I was jealous of her.  She always looked nice, said the right things, and EVERYONE wanted to be around her.  She did her hair and makeup every day, and, well, I didn't.  Maybe I didn't want to be her, but I wanted this likability that she had.  So I changed what I could.  Sure I wasn't about to have straight hair or beautiful skin but I could change what I liked.  I started listening to her music thinking it would make me be just a little more like her.

I should have known that was a waste.  I look back now on my pop phase and know it was such a waste of money, time, and it put such terrible lyrics in my head.  I love my friend, we still talk to this day, but I have since developed my own form of expression. 

She loved Glee.  While I didn't care for the show, I still watched it because she watched it, and I am so thankful I did.  I only watched the first season, because that was all I needed to change me into an independent person.  They played Journey, and I came home one day singing Don't Stop Believin'.  My dad heard me and asked if I liked that song, to which I said yes.  He took me into our living room, and I swear I have been in there a million times and never gone into this cupboard.  But he opened it up and there was about 50 CDs from when he was in high school.  I was hooked.

I started listening to all of the classics.  I still love them, even though my taste has changed the past few years.  I think that main reason why I can still appreciate their sound is because they were the first piece of music that I chose, and no one else told me to like it.  I still find myself jamming to Billy Joel in my car or hearing Elton John come on my phone, and I cant help but stop everything and sing when Journey comes on the radio.  Now I just don't chose them first, I have other tastes that come before they do.

I was still immature though and wanted to be like my friends.  So when I started driving I went back to those terrible radio classics.  Radioactive led me to my alternative side.  I have the entire deluxe Night Visions album by Imagine Dragons and I can not wait till they write some more of that beautiful music.  They led me to experiment more with to what I listened.  Pandora became my friend.  I didn't care if I heard ten terrible songs in a row as long as it led me to one amazing song. I Will Wait was the first time I heard the voice that changed my life.  Long story and many months later I am in love with Mumford & Sons.  I literally had a dream where I met them. 

I was so excited I showed all of my friends this music I had fallen in love with.  They hated it.  Said M&S was too country, or too poppy, or too main stream, or not that well known.  I was heartbroken.  I had changed all of my tastes so I could be like them and they wanted nothing to do with my new love.  So I FINALLY did the right thing, I listened to music because I liked it and did not care what anyone else around me said.  I now have tons of albums: M&S, Of Monsters and Men, Bastille, Florence & the Machines, The Head and the Heart, Radical Face, Imagine Dragons, The Lumineers, and so many soundtracks.  It no longer matter to what my friends listened, because I am in love and this music never grows old on me.

So long rant over and I finally get to the point: being an introvert it can be hard not to lose yourself, but keep strong and find who you are before you are lost forever.  I have made so many friends because of this new music, and I have made so many friends that hate my music, but it doesn't matter because I am confident in what I love and just want to share with whomever will listen.  I will be happy if you like my music, but I will be happier if you have never heard it.  I will be thrilled if you share some of yours with me, because humans are not sedentary objects, we are always moving and changing.  I never know when my tastes might just be in the mood for what you have.

Life lesson over.  I hope you enjoyed this.  And now, so I am not a hypocrite, I will share a little bit of my music with you.  Enjoy.  Or don't.  Just be you and I will be happy.

Love,
Amanda