15 Oddly Enjoyable Aspects Of Becoming More Introverted After College

1. You still love to socialize, you’re just selective about where and how you do it. Your life is no longer a schedule that consists of class for three to four hours a day and then NOTHING ELSE going on. Now, you have a job. Bills. Responsibilities. A schedule that requires you to get up before noon. Basically, you have to at least pretend to be an adult now, so you’re much smarter about what you do with the free time that you actually have.

2. When your friends ask you to go out and you just don’t want to, you have no problem straight up responding with “I don’t want to.”

3. But seriously, there’s no more making up lies or saying you’re not feeling well or pretending you have something else going on. You can literally tell your friend you aren’t going out because you don’t feel like it. And the best part? Your friends are adults too now, so they get it. They don’t even question you. And sometimes, they join you on the couch.

4. A magical switch seems to have been activated in your body whenever you go out. Somehow, you always know when to cut yourself off, and what drink and/or shot is going to be the one that is the death of you.

5. …You probably had this switch inside you in college too, but you were too blacked out to even realize what it was. But now, you know when to switch to water, which doesn’t mean you have less fun when you’re out. It just means you wake up knowing where you are, who you are, where your wallet is, and how you got home last night.

6. You no longer have to waste Saturday mornings in a fit of anxiety, trying to figure out what the hell happened last night after you took that shot with your roommate and you both blacked out.

7. You learn that becoming “more introverted” doesn’t necessarily change who you are or make you more shy and quiet. It just means that you understand when you need “me time.” And now you’re not afraid to take it.

8. You spend more time doing what you want to do, instead of trying to please every single person around you.

9. When you go out, you plan smartly. You usually keep it to only one night a week, and you know to set aside time for at least a full two days of recovery.

10.   …Recovery in this case meaning that you lay on the couch for hours and tell anyone who will listen that you are “actually dying.”

11. When it comes to your social life though, you know to never, ever rule out brunch. Because brunch means bottomless mimosas. And, more importantly, hash browns.

12. You get easily excited about the simplest things, like knowing you can go home and take a nap after work, or sit on your couch with a glass of wine, basking in the silence.

13. You get better at treating yo’self. You’re spending less money on some of the ridiculous things you spent it on in college, and now, you actually have a job. So you have no problem occasionally treating yourself to a massage, or an exciting trip, or even something random but awesome that you stumbled upon on Amazon.

14. It becomes easier to listen to your body and figure out what it is that you really need to do. You can more easily sense when you’re getting worn out and you need to sleep, or if you have a cold coming on, or when you’re feeling lethargic and need to get some exercise. You’re less concerned about making appearances and being seen on the weekends, and more focused on taking care of yourself.

15. You begin to form some truly deep and solid relationships, not that you didn’t have them in college. But now, you’re spending less energy on random acquaintances from class that you drunkenly hang out with at the bar, and more energy on doing truly meaningful things with people you really love to be around.