Being an adrenaline junkie seems kind of cool.
You often see them on the telly. People who are jumping out of airplanes or off cliffs, or swimming with sharks, or speeding around racecourses, or doing other sorts of crazy things designed to get their hormone levels buzzing.
Yes, being an adrenaline junkie is definitely portrayed as a positive thing. This is the sort of person we should all aspire to be, according to the mass media. The sort of person who leaps out and takes risks and embraces life.
Which, for introverts like myself, raises a bit of an issue. Sure, I’d like to be seen as the sort of person who takes risks and embraces life. But why do all those life-embracing things need to be so big and loud and attention seeking? So very…well…extroverted?
I reckon there are plenty of other ways to show the world that you’re an out-there sort of person. I reckon there are other ways you can give yourself an adrenaline high that are far more suitable for us introverted types. Because I reckon being a writer makes me an introverted adrenaline junkie.
There are so many ways that writing gets the adrenaline going. Just getting a good idea for a story is enough to give me a serious buzz, surely as good as jumping out of a plane. Finding that perfect combination of words to express that idea can be even better – the introvert equivalent of diving deep into a shark-infested ocean. And actually sending a story out into the world, whether it’s by flicking it off to a publisher or hitting publish on a self-publishing site, is like surfing on the front of a massive, curling breaker.
But there’s one thing we writers do that I reckon leaves any other adrenaline-raising activity in the dust. And that is standing (or even just sitting) in front of an audience to read out what you’ve written. I challenge any skydiver or racing driver or deep-sea diver to have a go at that. I can tell you that nothing gets the nerves more jangled, nothing raises the hairs on the back of your neck, nothing gets the heart thumping, more than that.
So there you see it. I’m a man who lives on the edge. I’m the sort of person who leaps out and grabs life by the scruff of the neck. I’m a total adrenaline junkie. But in a highly introverted way.
Posted by Jonathan Gould and tagged as