Why does summer feel like an extrovert cult initiation ritual and how do introverts opt out? 😵‍💫☀️📵

Seriously.

Is there a form I can fill out? A polite “thanks but no thanks” card I can mail to the sun?

Because every year like clockwork, the group texts bloom, the patio invitations start rolling in, and suddenly, not wanting to bask in UV rays with thirty sweaty acquaintances makes me “grumpy.”

Or “antisocial.”

Or “a lizard person who hates joy.”

Look, I’m not anti-summer. I’m anti-summer expectations. You know the ones:

☀️ “Let’s go hiking!”
☀️ “Let’s brunch on a rooftop in full solar exposure!”
☀️ “Let’s go to a festival and scream at each other over live music in 89% humidity!”

Meanwhile, I’m just trying to survive the season without spontaneously combusting or socially imploding.

Because when the world shifts into hot, loud, do-everything mode, my brain goes straight into hibernate, hydrate, and nope.

Go to work 🧑‍💻

Buy fruit I’ll forget to eat 🍎

Sidestep extroverts at the farmer’s market 🚶‍♀️

Go home and collapse with AC and a podcast 🔌🧠

Occasionally emerge at dusk, like a shy forest creature 🌲🌒

Summer is the Super Bowl of extroverts.

For me, it’s more like… an endurance test.

A heatwave of invitations I have to politely deflect while pretending I’m not melting inside and out.

Let’s Talk About This Assumption:

☀️ Sunshine = happiness = let’s socialize!
For introverts?
☀️ Sunshine = overstimulation = hide behind blackout curtains with a popsicle.

I’m not mad at summer. But I’d like it better if it came with quiet hours, shade protocols, and a mandatory “you’re allowed to opt out” clause.

No pool parties.

No pop-up street fairs.

No rooftop brunches with ambient techno.

Just:
🧊 An iced drink
🛋️ A dark room
📚 A book I’ll read three pages of before dissociating
🎧 Headphones in even if nothing’s playing

That’s the dream.

That’s the vibe.

That’s what keeps me from fleeing the planet until October.

You’re not weird.

You’re not broken.

You’re just operating on introvert mode in a season built for the socially caffeinated.

And no, you don’t owe anyone an explanation for skipping the BBQ.

Or the hike. Or the rooftop mixer where everyone smells vaguely like anxiety and sunscreen.

Let them frolic.

Let them bask.

Let them live their best SPF-slicked lives.

Because some of us don’t wilt in winter… we hibernate in summer. ❄️🧠☀️
And no, we’re not antisocial.
We’re just seasonally selective. 😉