I used to think I was an Introvert.  Yep, an Introvert with Extrovert tendencies.  The kind of Extrovert tendencies that surface for say ten years or so, go dormant for a day, and then resurface for another ten years or so.

Well, at work they offered a training class that clearly showed that I was indeed an Extrovert.  Yes, I was the last to find out.  Turns out, I am an Extrovert with Introvert tendencies.  Really, tendencies that are more hobbies or habits than tendencies, like blogging my thoughts (after rehearsing them verbally all day or week or something Extroverted like that) or preferring to eat an entire pint of ice cream alone instead of going to a party (that’s really more of a personal problem than any sort of Introvert tendency).  So there it was confirmed.  I was indeed an Extrovert, but I needed proof.  I did not have to wait long.

At the Friday night Spin Class, there I was attending class and I did not know any other soul in the room.  Sort of an isolated bear-sized man on a tiny bike trying to work it hard.  So our instructor has this interesting physic, smaller, but with biceps like Linda Hamilton from Terminator 2.  Yes, all awesomely ripped that way.  When she says “pedal,” you pedal.  Sort of like Linda Hamilton kicking the butt of a shape shifting robot sent from the future.

So Linda Hamilton is making me and my fellow classmate strangers sweat really hard, when “Don’t Stop Believin'” by Journey comes on the speakers.  In a joking fashion, but sort of like a Linda Hamilton command, our instructor says, “Feel free to karaoke to this song.”  The words start, “Just a small town girl livin’ in a lonely world…” and there I am trying to stay conscious and keep up with an instructor who is sculpted movie star style.  So I follow the command of Linda Hamilton (now fully in the role of Sarah Connor) and I start singing along with Steve Perry.  The only one in the room singing along.  “Just a city boy, born and raised in South Detroit…”  I was the only one singing along.  I look up.  Linda Hamilton points at me and gives a thumbs up of approval.  Keep singing, Dave.  Keep pedaling.  Don’t stop believin’.  She was going to let me survive spin class.

Now you are saying to yourself, “Dave, what is the point?  Other than of course, you have some unresolved movie star crush on Linda Hamilton from the early 1990s.”  Well, the point is, if you ever find yourself singing along to a song out loud in a room full of strangers, who are not singing along, you are probably an Extrovert.  Either that or you are trying to impress Linda Hamilton, but you are probably just an Extrovert.  Case closed and as for spin class, “I’ll be back.”