Those of you who know me, which quite frankly is all of you reading this blog at the moment, know that I’m a true introvert. In fact during orientation for my MBA, they had us all take the Meyer Briggs test. There’s a scale in terms of introversion and extroversion. I was so far towards the introversion side, I could have fallen off the ledge.

I tend to be quiet, I like my “me” time and can get anxious when there’s too much stimuli. If there’s too much social interaction going on without a break, I get exhausted. I honestly don’t know how people that are extroverts do it.

Through the years, I’ve done a lot of work to pull myself out of introversion when needed. I have my days where I still get annoyed when someone chit chats with me in line at the store. Why don’t they want to be just one with their thoughts? But then I also have my days where I find myself commenting to someone next to me or actually having a conversation with the cashier without irritation. It’s not as hard as I once thought.

All of this to say that this trip has been showing me the lengths to which I can go in both extremes. The first few days in Prague were a pre cruise program, so there were morning tours arranged, but other than that it was free time which essentially meant alone time. Up until we got on the ship yesterday evening, I had eaten every meal by myself since I had left the US. It was pretty lonely.

I talked to people while on the tours and a few couples started looking out for me to make sure I was back on the bus, etc. But once we made it back to the hotel everyone went their separate ways. I don’t know that I would have gone with them if they had asked for me to join them explore the city. I liked exploring on my own, but it was the meals like dinner that made it hard.

Now on the cruise, meals are surrounded by people. Unless you’re in your room, you’re surrounded by people. I’ve surprised myself at how much I can have small talk with people and how open I’ve been to engaging with them. At lunch today, I had a moment of panic because it was buffet and then seat yourself. There are no tables for two and by the time I got my food, there were no completely empty tables. It was like watching a movie where someone starts a new school and is standing in the cafeteria holding their tray and scanning the crowd to see who might accept them. Of course, these are all adults (very “mature” adults) and no one would have turned me away, but there was that moment of panic. I sat with this woman and her mom who had sat near me yesterday and it ended up being very pleasant.

Don’t get me wrong, after the lunch and talking to them for an hour, I was more than ready to take a little break alone with my book.

The travel continues and I am looking forward to the balance of solo exploration in different cities and then sharing my meals with strangers.