A few years
ago, I read that “happiness researchers” had found through extensive survey
research that the happiest people in the USA are Republicans, bigots, and
social butterflies (disturbing on two counts).
Although I
find “social butterfly” to evoke troubling imagery of vapid socialites snorting
cocaine in the bathrooms of clubs, I am one. Without the vapidity, the cocaine,
and definitely without the clubs. My parents have called me a social butterfly
for years, and I always found that slightly peculiar. I have always considered
myself somewhat shy (I generally get laughed at when I say that aloud to people);
I need my alone time and am perfectly content watching hours and hours of 30
Rock alone in my bed. Anyone who has spent a weekend away with me knows that I
can get quite withdrawn (okay, grouchy) by the end and need some alone time.
Plus, I’ve long considered myself to be very independent (particularly since Europe '03) and I resisted the notion that my happiness could be dependent on
other people.
A couple of
years ago, I did the Myers Briggs index and was revealed to be an extreme
extravert on every scale. Apparently I needed an empirically validated
personality index to realize that about myself, which is probably troubling,
but there you have it. I am a social butterfly, and it seems foolish now not to
have realized it on my own. I love and need to be around people, and if I’m not
social for a while, I get pretty blue and listless.
Which is
why moving to the other side of the world by myself has been hard. Moving
somewhere on your own is different from travelling by yourself, because you’re
not constantly around other travellers who are also invested in meeting new
people. You meet people, but they already have social circles and busy lives.
And they aren’t necessarily the kinds of people who make you laugh until your abdominals
hurt. I really miss laughing until I cry. These days I generally skip straight
to the crying. Ha! (Don’t worry, I’m 82% joking about that.)
I finish
uni for the year in 10 days, and my first order of business will be finding
some great, funny, smart people to have fun with until it’s time to return to
My People in Victoria.
I have a
plan.
More soon…
2 comments:
Wow! How crazy is that!
I want to take one of those tests now!
I'm so sorry I didn't respond to your question earlier (or maybe I did) I'm not sure, i think I forgot about it cause it was a comment that I needed to approve, I guess cause the post had "expired" ...i don;t know! haha.
but you asked about which farm I had gone to (close to Toronto ) it's called Andrew's Scenic Acres. I guess it's a little late for flowers now..but they did go well into october, so next time you're around yeah definitely check it out! :o) it's beautiful!
thanks so much for your comment by the way, and sorry again for such a late response!
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