03-5834-7267
“Quickly! The park is going to be taken!”
“Oh! Tetsu-kun. I was just thinking, wouldn’t it be nice if Kenma took us out to play soccer sometimes.”
“…But I don’t think Kenma would want to go. I understand not wanting to go too. If he showed even a little interest, I’d definitely take him, but Kenma isn’t like that. However, Kenma will put his all into things he likes, so it’s fine.”
“…I see…!”
“…If Kuro were just a party-loving guy, I wouldn’t be hanging out with him.”
“Why do you keep attacking me like that?”
“Sure, I don’t want to sweat if I can avoid it, and sometimes I’d prefer to play games rather than practice, and I think I’d rather watch volleyball than play it. But thinking that you have to do something isn’t a bad thing.”
This conversation is from the manga “Haikyuu,” between Kenma’s father and young Kuroo, and then between Kenma and Kuroo.
“What kind of personality do you have?”
I have a low level of extraversion and high levels of conscientiousness and openness.
My low extraversion is quite pronounced, with results showing that I am lower in extraversion than 95% of people.
However, since I started playing soccer, I naturally gathered friends around me who are extroverted and stand out at school, so I can play the part of an extroverted person.
Still, if I have to constantly act like an extroverted person or be surrounded by extroverted friends, I get exhausted.
Therefore, even though I liked playing soccer with everyone when I was in elementary school, I loved spending time alone playing soccer, reading, or watching movies.
As a high school student, I remember loving to kick the ball alone on a quiet field and thinking, “I hope no one else comes.”
However, the world is set up to be easier for extroverted people.
In infancy, parents and daycare teachers tend to pay more attention to extroverted, high-maintenance children who express their feelings a lot.
Quiet, introverted children often receive only praise like “You’re such a good child” and are left alone.
In school, teachers who have never experienced society often label highly cooperative and extroverted students as model students, while in companies, cooperation with others and expressing opinions in the presence of strangers are highly valued traits.
Because I am introverted, I want to create a society where introverted people can also thrive.
Debra Johnson used positron emission tomography (PET), which is used in cancer screening, to experiment with the brain functions of “extroverted” and “introverted” people.
The subjects were injected with a small amount of radiation into their bloodstream and then scanned to identify which parts of the brain were most active.
Two findings emerged from this research.
First, the amount of blood flowing in the brains of “introverted” people was higher than that of “extroverted” people.
A higher blood flow means that the brain is working more actively.
Second, the blood flow in “introverted” people was directed towards parts of the brain associated with “thinking,” such as memory, problem-solving, and planning.
In contrast, the blood flow in “extroverted” people was directed towards brain regions related to “sensory information,” such as visual, auditory, and tactile senses.
When interviewed afterward, the following differences were observed:
-
Extroverted people: Paid attention to what was happening in the lab.
-
Introverted people: Paid attention to their own internal feelings and thoughts.
This research indicates that what separates extroverts from introverts is whether they focus their attention on the outside world or their inner world.
Introverted people tend to use their past knowledge and experiences to solve problems, even when encountering unfamiliar situations.
Therefore, introverts are likely to remain calm when faced with unknown situations.
In the modern era of high uncertainty, the volume of information we receive has increased 6,400 times compared to the year 2000.
In such times, the calmness possessed by introverted people is required.
“…The other one looks cooler, but aren’t you going to do that?”
“That’s a spike! It’s cool, right? But you can’t do it unless you’re tall…”
“Then let’s lower the net. At first, it’s about the joy of being able to do it. ‘Practice makes perfect,’ right?”
…It’s a small event. But I think Kuro won’t forget this day. Later, I learned about the adult with a slouch. Nekoma High School volleyball team, Nekoma-sensei…
…Since that day, Kuro quickly became… well, he became very fond of volleyball. He joined a new team, made new friends at school, and started talking more about things other than volleyball…
…But since there are no volleyball players in the neighborhood, he still comes over…
“—Did you see that? The light side, he glanced over for a moment and I thought he was going to set it there, but he set it to the left!”
“Stop watching, let’s go outside.”
“You brought it, right? Hey, bring the one we saw last week again.”
“What!? Kenma, you should definitely become a setter! You’d look cool as the strategist…!”
…Strategist…
“And setters don’t have to move around much. Alright, let’s go outside!!”
“Eh~.”