EMBRACING THE EXTRAVERT

I have despised personality tests since I was in high school. No matter which test it is, my friends would always disagree with my results which led to lots of confusion. One consistent disagreement between the people in my life and the tests was whether I was introverted (my friends) or extraverted (personality tests).

Basically, an introverted person recharges through personal time whereas an extraverted person recharges through social interactions. Most of my life, people have told me that I must be introverted because I’m quiet. And most of my life, I was conflicted because I love being around people. So as a psychology minor in college, whenever personality tests were mentioned, I always groaned, thinking that I would only be more confused afterwards. 

As the mission year began and ministry started in full-swing, the long days started to catch up with me and exhaustion started to set in. There were a lot of mornings I woke up tired and not energized for student meetings. But as I got to the meetings, it was like the Holy Spirit woke up within me and I felt like I could bounce off the walls with the energy I had. When I would leave the meetings and work on more administrative things, the tiredness would rush back in. 

A few weeks ago, we were able to attend a young adult prayer event and it was amazing. There were so many people that I knew or was able to meet and I was so happy, I nearly cried. It started when I spoke to one of my teammates. While we were catching up, my other teammate introduced me to two young women who love board games almost as much as I do which was such a lovely surprise. While we were speaking, another friend popped into view, and we were able to catch up and share our recent prayer experiences. Then, I ended up in another conversation with one of the women from my Bible study and we had a heart-to-heart about mission which still brings me joy to think about. My heart was so overjoyed and energized after the event that I actually wanted to go for a run..in the cold...at 10 p.m...

When I reflected upon the graces of that evening, I realized that being with students has continuously energized me, whereas being alone is often draining. Once I realized that, the Truth was liberating. I am an extravert. It felt like something within me clicked and it was easier to embrace other parts of my personality and be thankful to God for creating me the way that He did. The Lord helped me to realize that my identity comes from Him and not from an online personality test, which brought me so much peace.

​Thanks for reading all the way to the bio! My name is Mariah Navis, and I am a first-year missionary with Brew City Catholic at UW-Milwaukee. This year has brought so many blessings, especially joy, and I am so excited to share some of them with you!

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