Social Pressures and Your Introvert

This is actually one of my favorite times of the year.   Even when it's raining out, it's still lush and green, and fairly temperate.  No need for jackets (or umbrellas, if you've spent as much time in the Pacific NW rainforests as I have).   Graduations and major holidays are spread out on the calendar over the next few weeks and months.  Students are excited about the changes, and parents are tearfully blessing their children as they take the next step out into the world on their own.

I'm incredibly proud of my stepsons for being so ambitious with college.   Brady is graduating with honors, as well as a medal from the SUNY Chancellor's Award ceremonies.  Kyle is still doing dual enrollment, finishing High School over the next year while earning college credits.  I will be crying a lot this coming weekend because Brady is graduating, and both of our boys are basically grown ups.  I've been luckier than most Janie-Come-Lately stepmothers.   I've gotten extra time with Brady (yay!!!), and I might (yay!!!) get extra time with Kyle as well.  The boys who were ten and fifteen when I started seeing their father are now grown young men of seventeen and twenty-two.

This time of year brings with it the promise of social pressures as well.   Graduation is a wonderful event, and so dear to a stepmother's heart.   It is also a mass gathering of thousands (and I do mean thousands) of people.   I'll be bringing my little survival kit with me, complete with gum, water, tissues, band-aids, and sunscreen.   Mother's Day was yesterday, and Father's Day is next month.  My sister and I both have some issues surrounding these holidays, although we are so grateful to Mom and Dad for providing such a culturally-enriched and unique childhood in the NYC-commuter area.  Finally, the transition between the end of the Spring 2015 semester and the start of the Summer 2015 semester provides a veritable cornucopia of social experiences--ranging from the highly rewarding ones to the highly frustrating. 

This is part of why I have been reading so voraciously over the past few weeks.  It is an outlet for me wherein I can be Introverted no matter where I am...the book contains everything necessary to "disappear" and decompress.   Be well, fellow Introverts...