The Paradox of Being a Live Music Loving Introvert

From Introvert Doodles

I find people exhausting. There, I've said it.

I get irritable and cranky in crowds. I spend a day recovering from a party. Usually by sleeping in and taking a nap and staying in my pyjamas. I can usually handle it by focusing on one or two people, or on a task.

Going out takes my energy away.

The weird part though is that the things I go out to do bring me energy. Going out dancing brings me energy. Getting onstage to sing my favourite songs brings me energy. Seeing other people perform live music brings me energy.

What's a person to do!?

As it turns out, on an average week it cost me about as much energy to go out as it does to not go out. I manage okay. But this was not an average week. Six days in a row of all the best people, music and fun.

I didn't make it. I had to take a break mid-week and miss what sounds like a pretty great event on Thursday night. But I don't regret it a bit. If I hadn't stayed home, watching movies wrapped in a blanket on the couch, I never would have gone out the rest of the weekend.

Staying home Thursday night meant that I had enough energy to stay out way too late and have way to much fun both Friday and Saturday night.

But the best night of the weekend ended up being Sunday.

Last night was the monthly Campfire Sessions, which is when a large rowdy group of musicians sit around a table of tea lights and sing songs. The last three months in a row the night was quite the hootenanny with as many musicians as people standing and watching. Good luck trying to get up and use the bathroom on these nights. You're as likely to get hit by a stringed instrument as a pint of beer trying to navigate through the crowd. Exactly the type of event which gives me panic attacks.

But not last night. Last night was some type of serendipity. The universe knew I couldn't handle one more night of the crush of the crowd and instead delivered an amazing, low-key night where only the most hard-core of Campfire sitters came out.

I guess it was a long week for everyone, and that suited me just fine.

It was quiet enough to hear all the great players. The flutes and the accordion and the violins shined over the guitars. And the singing voices cut through it all.

Somehow, going out last night didn't leave me with an equally balanced depletion and addition of energy. Amazingly I feel like I could take on the world today. I came home with a surplus!