When You Quarantine an Extrovert

When you quarantine an extrovert, she won’t take it well. She’ll cry and complain because she won’t know how to cope. She’ll miss her independence, her autonomy, her friends, her apartment, her town, and her life. She won’t get out of bed or change out of her pajamas for a few days. Finally, she’ll get moving.

When you quarantine an extrovert, she’ll start to turn to other comforts. She’ll lay out on the porch with her next Game of Thrones book (A Storm of Swords) when it’s warm and sunny. She’ll curl up on the couch and binge her next show obsession (Little Fires Everywhere) when it’s cold and rainy. She’ll escape outside of herself into other worlds and stories for as long as possible to forget the one she is in…until she has to come to reality.

When you quarantine an extrovert, her favorite hands-on classes will turn online. She’ll miss the newsroom meetings, the studio, and editing suite as much as her big lecture halls. She’ll message people on Facebook asking for phone and Facetime interviews. She’ll watch lectures in her kitchen with her brother instead of with hundreds of students. She’ll get an Oculus VR headset in the mail from her emerging technologies professor, set it up, and spend hours exploring the virtual adventures it provides…until she starts to get motion sick and places the headset on the charger instead of her head.

When you quarantine an extrovert, she’ll have to start to navigate her virtual social life. Her friends will create a Zoom meeting to go to the “library” and sit quietly online with each other doing work. Her friends will Facetime her for a first day of class party after a day online to share updates and a drink. Her friends will create snapchat groups to send pictures of their new normal.

When you quarantine an extrovert, she won’t enjoy it but she’ll have to make the best of it.

(This post is inspired (obviously) by If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Let’s break it down. )