Introvert or Extrovert?

BYU has an interesting program called "Generations Project".  In it one person is highlighted with investigative help and trips to trace their ancestory.  Today the lady was a college professor who had had cancer and now had diabetes and was needing to change her lifestyle to a more healthy regime.  She had heard stories about her great grandmother who had come from Ireland when she was 19 and had a very prolific life in America.  Her grandchildren remembered the days visiting at her home in Camden, New Jersey as some of their best and had great admiration for her.

This professor wanted to find out what her great grandmother was like and where she got this inner strength that she was reported to have.  She felt she needed the inspiration to have the strength to change her life as was needed.

This professor felt somewhat guilty about the fact that she always had people around her helping her with her projects and she helped them in return.  She did not do things on her own very well.  She always seemed to need that companionship to succeed at anything.

When she traveled to Ireland she learned about the way they lived in the 1800's, very much as a community helping one another.  Her ancestors were poor and had a small home with two bedrooms and maybe four to five or more to a bed.  She learned about the potato famine in Ireland when the potatos were rotten in the ground.  She learned about the peat made from the soil that was used as firewood and how the women had to work along side the men.  She learned about her great grandmother who had help from the community in getting her out of Ireland and to "America" in 1892 because she was hungry, yes, physically hungry.  And how she had help from others as soon as she arrived.

She came to learn that she didn't need to feel guilty about wanting her 'community' around her in whatever she did, this was to her a genetic 'footprint'.

The statement that interested me is the fact that 'introverts' are those who gain their energy from being alone, and 'extroverts' gain their energy when they are surrounded by others.

Her Irish heritage was one of being with a group, a community, having others around her--she no longer feels guilty about asking a friend to come and exercise with her.

And you know what they say about Swedes--"two's a crowd."  So I guess that is my genetic 'footprint' as I am definitely an introvert.   Picture on left, in Stockholm, Sweden, visiting my heritage with Linda and Maria.

Oh, yes, and Ireland was so beautiful, what a great place to take a trip.