Introverts can often be described as this

Do you love learning for its own sake?

 Do you have a penchant for looking up the definitions of unfamiliar words you come across?

 Do you enjoy going to museums -- not only to check out neat exhibits, but to read the descriptions  that accompany them?

Does a day spent writing in a library or coffee shop sound ideal to you?

While others watch reality TV, do you immerse yourself in educational documentaries?

 Do you like traveling to cities mainly to soak up history and culture?

If you answered "yes" to one or more of the above (as I proudly do), you're likely an autodidact, which simply means you're self-taught. You learn things on your own just for the sheer pleasure of learning. 

Granted, an autodidact can still be college-educated, but once they have that diploma in hand, he or she refuses to give up his pursuit of learning. 

When I graduated from college, I felt a sudden void in my life.

No longer forced to read books or write papers, my intellectually curious self didn't what to do with himself.

I asked myself whether the next logical step was grad school, which would allow me remain a student and maintain access to the structured learning environment afforded by academia. 

In the end, I opted to focus on getting some work experience under my belt. I wanted to be a writer anyhow, and I figured such a career choice would quench my thirst for learning to some degree.

But corporate America is a completely different animal.

In college, you get to exert far more control over the work you turn in, enjoying considerably more creative latitude. Sure, you might have some group projects (and thus difficult personalities) to contend with, but it's a far cry from the corporate grind, where endless red tape and incessant brown-nosing are par for the course. 

Writing for an organization is worlds apart from writing for leisure.

In the end, I realized that I could keep my professional/corporate writing life separate from my personal writing life, which encompasses everything from blogging to freelance writing.

There's only so much you can learn in the workplace, and you're often doing it on someone else's terms.

If your aim is to, say, learn about the teachings of Confucius or to dig deeply into world history, it won't be on the company's dime. 

But who's to say you can't undertake a side project where you indulge your intellectual leanings -- whether by launching a website, selling a product, or writing a book?

I've always been passionate about writing, history, psychology, and helping people, so I knew I wanted to do something that fused these elements together. That's where this blog comes in.

And I'm certainly not the first or the last introvert with this predisposition. 

If you're an introvert, chances are your home office is stacked with books, you enjoy writing, or perhaps you pass the time playing Jeopardy! or other trivia games.

As noted in my previous entry, introverts prefer written to oral communication -- thus the reason so many of us are drawn to the written word. 

Introverts tend to be drawn to the arts in general; there are in fact music lovers, art aficionados, and pottery makers in our ranks. 

If there's something no one can ever take away from you, it's your knowledge. Knowledge is power!

So never let anyone extinguish your passion for learning. Devour those books. Write or paint to your heart's content. Broaden your horizons by learning a new language or musical instrument. Never stop questioning or seeking out information. 

With so many tools at our disposal -- from documentaries on Netflix to informative videos on YouTube -- the world is an introvert's oyster. 

Indeed, you'll hardly ever ever spot an introvert complaining of boredom (unless maybe there are no books in sight)!