Jessica Pan

In my case, “freelancer” was a euphemism for wandering around the apartment in my pajamas and becoming overly excited when I’d see stray cats in my backyard.

As if I was worried about my intestines. As if I was worried about tomorrow. I was addressing hundreds of people in an hour. Screw tomorrow, pass the spicy beef.

I’m antisocial anywhere after hour three, which is when I turn into dust. Grumpy dust.

Is there a phrase that carries a greater sense of dread than “improv comedy”? That is guaranteed to make people scream in horror when you mention it at parties? Only “Gwyneth’s jade egg” or “cash only” can compete.

But self-confidence doesn’t find us: we have to push ourselves to do something hard and live through it, and then confidence will eventually follow. I’d faked confidence and, by doing so, created it.

Even though solitude is important to me, I like it on my own terms.

A recent study says one in two travelers thinks the best thing about traveling is getting out of their comfort zones. I left one too many comfort zones for this particular trip to be fun for my personality type

But of course I don’t think we should all be extroverts. But the self-care trend has extroverts pursuing introvert activities to help them relax and reflect—so why shouldn’t we introverts do the same? When we need to be loud and social and outgoing, we can steal their traits when we need them.