Me, Myself, and I

It's way too early to be sitting in the Detroit airport, waiting to fly back home. The last week was spent at the 26th Annual Michigan Pediatric Board Review Course, trying to cram everything the ABP thinks I should know into my mostly-already-full brain. It was lovely to see the 19 other Mercy grads that were able to make the trip up; I miss those kids. And yet...

It struck me that although we spent the entire day essentially quiet, face-forward, listening to presentations, the mere fact of being surrounded by so many people exhausted me. You would think by the time they released us, I would be ready to talk, laugh, catch up. But after three days, I was about to explode. All I wanted to do was go to my room, lie on the bed, and just be.

Alone.

I missed my me time. Introvert to the core, I suppose. The more people that are incredulous when I tell them as much, the more I doubt whether I'm truly introverted instead of just shy. But this confirmed it for me. Only an introvert would want to go sit in a hotel room by herself after 10 hours of sitting quietly. And you know what? I'm okay with that. It was reaffirming to recognize what I needed and allow myself to do that without feeling guilty. I was still able to get in plenty of social time without burning myself out.

So now, 53 hours of CME later, I'm ready to get back home, back to my routine, back to sitting and eating breakfast by myself (or with the wombmate, but since we both just read the paper, it doesn't really count). Hooray.