University: My B+ Slump.

I've had a number of results back recently, and so far all but one has been a B+. Now don't get me wrong, that's a pretty good grade and I'm happy with it. The only issue is that it's so, so close to an A; which means I'm averaging on a 2:1, but bordering on a 1st. And it seems that no matter how much effort I put into an assignment I can't quite break free of my B+ streak. I know it's such a silly and trivial thing to be down in the dumps over, but I would really love to achieve a first class honours in my degree.

I've got about a month until my next deadline; so I'm hoping the time off will somehow do me some good. That way when it's time to begin work on my next assignment I might feel slightly fresher, or more motivated and break through my B+ slump, while adding another A to my repertoire.

I'm sure a number of you out there can relate to my situation. I don't suppose you'd be willing to offer any advice?

(Thanks in advance)
-Hannah. :)

The Introverted Bookworm: Books of Importance.

As I mentioned in my introductory post, I'm a bookworm. That hasn't always been the case though. Up until Year 11 I'd never been much of a reader; it took me months to finish books, and that was if I even bothered to finish them. But in the summer months of Year 11, when I was meant to be revising for my GCSEs, I ordered two books off of Amazon. These two books were The Perks of being a Wallflower and Looking For Alaska. I had both of them read within a week, and after that I couldn't stop reading.

I was considering incorporating my love of reading into my blog by doing reviews on some of the books I plan to read over the summer. But I don't think I'm enough of a literary critic to pull that off. So instead I've decided to write a post about the books that I have read that mean the most to me, and attempt to explain why these books are so important to me.

Enjoy!

First I'll start with the book that means the most to me out of the three. That book just so happens to be the previously mentioned Looking for Alaska by John Green. I'm sure many of you have heard of John Green, due to the massive success of his last book, The Fault in Our Stars. The Fault in Our Stars is an incredible book, and in terms of writing, it is Green's best work to date; however in terms of what I've taken from the book Looking for Alaska wins hands down. 

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As cliché as it may sound to some, Looking for Alaska changed my outlook on life a little bit. Miles, the protagonist of the story mentions the idea of the 'Great Perhaps' at the beginning of the novel. And it is this simple little idea that life is a series of situations brought together by numerous perhapses -let's pretend that's a word- that had such a profound effect on me. I'll use an example to try and explain the 'Great Perhaps' to any of you who are unfamiliar with the book: one day you might decide to go to your favourite coffee shop for lunch and perhaps you'll be left alone to read your book; or perhaps someone will walk over and tell you how much they enjoyed the book you're currently reading and you'll form either a new friendship or a casual acquaintance; or perhaps if you sit outside you'll pet the cute dog sat patiently waiting for their owner to come out with their coffee; perhaps when the owner returns you'll strike up conversation and you'll find yourself with a date; or perhaps they'll just smile politely at you, pick up the lead and walk away.

Although I've always been fairly open to new experiences, whenever trying something new or going somewhere new, I was -and still am to a degree- slightly over cautious about the situation and everything surrounding it. However after reading Looking for Alaska I began to embrace new things more, all because of this idea of the 'Great Perhaps'. Instead of meticulously planning things to have as much order and control over the situation as possible, I began to loosen up and embrace the idea of all the things that could happen if I handed a bit of control over to chance. And I must say the 'Great Perhaps' has been very good to me, not so much to my finances in some cases, but overall it's been good to me so far.

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Secondly, there is Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus by John Gray. This will be a lot shorter than Looking for Alaska's section as there is far less to explain. This book is important to me, and will not only remain important to me in the future but may also become an invaluable tool, because it provides so much insight into the psychological differences between men and women. 

Not only does it explain these differences and how they can lead to numerous relationship problems, it also provides exercises that help overcome these problems and provides real life examples of how successful these exercises can be if both partners are willing to work on their relationship. I know this is an incredibly popular book, but I think even more people should read it. If you want a successful, committed and happy relationship later in life -or even right now- then I'm practically 100% sure this book will come in handy.

And finally, as some of you may have guessed, is Quiet by Susan Cain. I've mentioned this book a lot already so I won't go into detail about it here; but you should definitely check this book out too!

I know this has been a super long post. Sorry if you got bored half way through, maybe I should have made it into a two part post. But if you did manage to make it to the end and I didn't bore you to death, then go you! Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

Also, if you've made it this far and think I'm crazy for not including a book(s) that is really important to you, let me know what it is/they are in the comments and I'll check it/them out.
-Hannah. :)

First Things First: Introductions.

Greetings fellow introverts -and any extroverts who have come to get a glimpse inside an introvert's mind! As my sidebar notes, my name is Hannah and I'm a twenty year-old Psychology student. That's a very brief summary of myself, but as the address and title of this blog suggests, this looks like it's going to be quite a personal blog. And it is because of the future depth of my blog that I have decided to start out with a better description of myself than my sidebar offers -I've also decided to go down the obvious route and explain my reasonings for creating this blog, but that'll come a little later on in this post.

As well as being an indicator for the potential depth of my blog, my address and title tell you quite a lot about me. As they note, I am an introvert. I tend to describe myself as 'a massive introvert' as introversion and extroversion are seen as a spectrum and I have a great deal of introverted traits and barely any extroverted one. These traits include all the typical things: watchful, soft-spoken, mellow, a good listener, I enjoy being by myself and I dislike conflict and risk-taking. But on top of being 'a massive introvert' I'm also incredibly shy; shy to the point where I've crossed over into Social Anxiety Disorder territory. To a lot of you, reading that won't be a surprise as introversion and shyness/SAD are often deemed to have a hand-in-hand relationship.

Moving slightly away from my personality but staying on the topic of introducing myself, I'm an animal lover. In all my twenty -almost twenty-one years- I've had more favourite animals than I can recall. But after years of trying to decided I've concluded that instead of a favourite animal I have a top three (Cats, meerkats and dolphins for any of you who are interested). Relating to this point, I feel the need to declare that I'm a cat lady. I know some of you out their are dog lovers and I totally respect that. I like dogs as much as the next person, but they're just not quite as good as cats in my eyes.

Going on from animals before I get too into singing the praises of cats, I'm also a bookworm and a music and film fanatic. There's little I enjoy more than either a night in with a good book, a night out at a concert, or a night getting way too emotionally involved in a film. And to top my introduction off, I am without a shadow of a doubt a truly, hopeless romantic. I personally blame my love of films and books for this, as there's nothing that makes my heart swoon as much as grand romantic gestures and mutual, undying love -not that I've had either happen to me yet, but a girl can live in hope. The hopeless romantic in me, who has watched more than her fair share of Disney films, cannot wait until the day a man looks at me the way all Disney prince's look at the princess.

Seriously, who doesn't want their partner to look at them like that?!

I think that's a detailed enough insight into myself, so let's move onto why I decided to create this blog specifically.

I decided to start this blog after reading Quiet by Susan Cain -well actually I'm halfway through as I type this. If you have not already heard about this book, and are yourself an introvert, or at least think you are, then I really, really recommend you get this book. The book's purpose is to show that introverts are incredibly underrated individuals. The world we live in today loves extroverts; it gives us the mindset that if you want to get anyway in life you need to be an extrovert, and if you're not an extrovert then you need to pretend to be one. But you don't, and that's why I love this book so much, even though I've not even finished it yet. Firstly it helps you identify traits within yourself, and secondly it helps you to embrace them, by showing you just how useful these traits are to the world, even though it seems like the world denies it.

Quiet has left such an impression on me already, that I thought I would try to do something on a smaller, less brilliant, scale. And that is why I'm here. I'm here because I want to share my introverted experiences with the world. I want extroverts to understand how introverts see the world and what goes on inside the mind of an introvert; and I want to reassure other introverts out there that there is absolutely nothing wrong with them the way that they are and that they aren't the only ones who think and act the way they do.

Because of those aims I really want to encourage the input of any readers I gain as my blog begins and progresses. If I write a post that you can really relate to, then let me know in the comments; I'd love to know! If you've got a question about something I've mentioned in a post, then please do feel free to ask, I'll respond as best as I can. General feedback on either a post or my blog is great and appreciated too!

Also, as a little disclaimer: as of right now I don't plan to have a blogging schedule, so I highly doubt my blogging will be as consistent as other, much more popular blogs. But as my blog progresses and develops that may very well change. I truly hope that my current lack of a blogging schedule doesn't put you off from following my blog. I'd love for you to read about my introverted experiences and share your own with me.

What I ask of you now in the fetus stages of my blog is to stick with me, at least for a little while, so we can both see how things go and make this blog better together.

Thank you for taking the time to read all of this,
-Hannah. :)