A Love Letter To The Introverts Who Never Felt Like They Were Enough

Dear Introvert,

You know who you are. You’re the person who has this complex inner world, so deep sometimes you joke about getting lost in your head. Sometimes you do get lost in your head and you forget that’s not how the world works. The world asks us to be happy and light-hearted, to laugh and spend our evenings drinking with work colleagues. The world asks us to network, to make jokes, to talk—to never stop talking. To have any chance of seeming “normal”, the world asks too much of us.

You know who you are. When you were 13, the person you thought was your best friend started ignoring you, and you remember the feeling of your heart being stabbed from the betrayal. Because without them, you had… no one. You remember the pain of being alone and you remember your firm resolve to try to be different. Because who you were wasn’t good enough. Who you were was wrong.

You know who you are. You carry the eternal scars from loneliness, awkward silences, and let-downs. You’re constantly searching for the missing piece, for the feeling of coming home. You know the struggle between knowing you should put yourself out there, weighed up against the desire to merely go back to bed. To retreat to safety.

To all you introverted souls. The weird ones, the odd-ones-out, the sensitive, different, shy ones. The ones who are looking to be fixed. The ones exhausted by the end of the day in a world that is just too noisy. The ones who have this inner self-hatred because you simply cannot express the thoughts in your head. The ones who can’t quite seem to get life right, no matter how many bullet journals you fill out or affirmations you repeat. The ones who find it hard to connect with humans and carry around a degree of separation, constantly looking from the outside-in at all the fun in the world.

We have something in common.

We choose the most difficult path.

Because we are not who this world has been designed for.

We have something else in common. Something that all humans have in common, introverted or not.

We have love.

We are love. Love binds us together through time and space. Love is something you have with you always.

When you retreat back to safety, you are giving yourself love. When you muster up the courage to contribute one point in a conversation, you are giving yourself and others love. When the only person you’ve spoken to that day was the cashier at the supermarket, you are giving out love.

You are not broken, you are love.

So no matter what you’re going through or what you think of yourself, know that you are wonderful, just the way your introverted self is. Lonely or not lonely, content or restless, you’re fine exactly as you are.

I see you in all your quiet strength.

And one day, you’re going to wrap your arms tightly around you like a warm, soft, comforting blanket and know from the bottom of your heart that there is nothing wrong with you.

But until then, you are exactly where you are meant to be.

Your lovely, introverted self, wounds and all.

* This article was originally published here