Y’know, I’ve been thinking about it, and as much as I try to fit in within college society, I still feel like an outcast.

It’s strange, really; I can be quite extroverted when it comes to class discussions. I’m usually one of the first ones to answer when questions are asked, usually one of the most vehement participants in class debates; indeed, sometimes I’m urged by my teachers not to talk so much.

Yet outside of the classroom, it’s almost as if I’m an entirely different being. No longer talkative, I’m instead rather shy, the stereotypical introvert with his head either staring at his own feet or buried in some sort of reading material, often rather oblivious to the world around me (occasionally with rather unpleasant results). Sure, I can get into a conversation, but I generally don’t feel like I’m a part of the group, so to speak; with a few exceptions (and what great exceptions those are!), everyone’s lifestyle and interests seem, well, so different from mine. And even the people I do feel comfortable around can make me feel alienated when they join in the discussions of others; I only feel as if I’m more of an outcast when they refer to such alien topics as driving around town, socializing, and encounters with people of whom I’ve never even heard. (Don’t get me wrong; I’m by no means anti-social. I just detest small talk, and would rather have a discussion on computer glitches, weird typographical mishaps, my own horrible driving, or something of that sort; heck, I don’t even mind listening to conversations about organic chemistry homework amongst some of my more introverted friends, even though I sometimes haven’t the slightest clue what they’re talking about.)

But then again, granted, it could just be that I’m looking in the wrong places. Perhaps I should just hang out more in the library and the computer labs; I can speak from personal experience when I say that it’s generally inconvenient for most of my fellow introverts to bother sitting down in the dining hall for more than a few minutes…

But one thing is for sure: I’m not bothering with fraternities. Well, unless you count such honor societies as Phi Eta Sigma in that category, which I doubt most people would…

Oh, and one last comment: I decided, on a whim, to search for introvert blog on Google, and (at least at the time I wrote this) zone38.net was listed in the fourth page of results. Wow, I didn’t realize I was that popular…I’m quite flattered. 🙂