My whole life is thrown off balance every year, every
November and December. There simply are too
many social activities for my liking.
It is one party or function after the other, people and more people and
too many people. If I had it may way, I would
much rather stay in bed on those days with a migraine. Problem is, I can’t fake illness. The sad part is, and I’m sure a lot of other
people may feel the same; I’m sort of forced to go.
I was told in a meeting the other day that employees
declining invites to Christmas parties are the negative ones in a corporation. I was also told, not in that meeting, and not
in these exact words, that I give people reason to pick on me because I aired
my view on this issue.
Now, just to clear it all:
I’m not negative towards any corporation. I’m not negative towards a good plate of food
(just look at me!), I’m not negative towards people I work with. I like my job. I like getting up in the morning and getting to work. I like speaking with the people at work. But what I like most, is going home after work.
I like people, but I prefer to be alone. End of story.
That is who I am.
When there are too many of you, you exhaust me and you make me nervous and you make me want to
go home. That is why I prefer being with
my family. Irma, sometimes Martin (he
can handle company better than I do and spend a fair amount of time with
friends), and Stiaan when he is home. They
are enough for me, most of the time.
We stay at home, we go out, we go camping, we go wherever we
want to without having to interact anymore than needed to pay for things, check
in and out at places, and to (at most) greet our neighbours at a campsite. When I feel the need for more social
interaction than what I get at home or work, I reach out to close friends and
family, have some time with them, and then I’m good to go for another month or
two or twelve.
So, please invite me to your parties. I will never say no to free food. Sometimes the networking opportunities are not
so dull either. Sometimes you invite
some of my close friends or family and I can happily ignore the rest of the
crowd. But please know: I can’t wait to leave, and I can’t wait to get to January. I desperately need to get back home! I desperately
need to restore balance, my balance, according to my scale, the scale that is
calibrated perfectly for me.
Please note that no extroverts were killed during the writing of this blog.
Please note that no extroverts were killed during the writing of this blog.
