Another explained, “I think I’d speak for any introvert when I say if you could hear all the thoughts running through an introvert’s mind at any given moment – you’d feel like you’d just had your ear talked off for the last hour.

The best job for an introvert is the job that calls you.

Introverts are actually a lot like Clark Kent – mild and unassuming much of the time, but able to swoop in and turn on our Supercharm when we choose.

One reason listening can be exhausting for introverts is that we pay attention. We listen hard. Words enter our ears and then go straight to our busy, whirring brains to be processed, considered, and analyzed.

It’s not that introverts aren’t good team players. We just don’t need to be in the same room as the rest of the team at all times. We would much prefer to have part of the project carved out for us to squirrel away with it in our offices, consulting as necessary but working independently.

Small talk is the WD-40 of society. It has a purpose, perhaps many purposes. A few niceties with a sales clerk, a little joshing with your dentist’s receptionist, some light get-to-know-ya banter with a stranger at a party – it keeps the gears of society cranking smoothly, makes the world feel friendly, and protects our social muscles from atrophy.

The introvert’s dilemma is that we might not get a lot of invitations for the kind of socializing we like best – small, mellow gatherings. In other words, the kind of socializing other introverts like to do. Because, let’s face it: We’re introverts. We’re all at home waiting to be invited to do introvert things. Which means, of course, that none of us are getting the invitations we crave. It’s an introvert standoff.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with finding our own thoughts more interesting than a long story about someone’s husband’s niece’s gum surgery. Introverts.

One of the risks of being quiet is that the other people can fill your silence with their own interpretation: You’re bored. You’re depressed. You’re shy. You’re stuck up. You’re judgemental. When others can’t read us, they write their own story – not always one we choose or that’s true to who we are.

Just because I’m quiet doesn’t mean I have nothing to say.