Genre: Nonfiction
Length: 384 pages
Audiobook Length: 8 hours and 52 minutes
First Published: 2019
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Publisher’s Description
What would happen if a shy introvert lived like a gregarious extrovert for one year? If she knowingly and willingly put herself in perilous social situations that she’d normally avoid at all costs? Jessica Pan is going to find out.
When she found herself jobless and friendless, sitting in the familiar Jess-shaped crease on her sofa, she couldn’t help but wonder what life might have looked like if she had been a little more open to new experiences and new people, a little less attached to going home instead of going to the pub.
So, she made a vow: to push herself to live the life of an extrovert for a year. She wrote a list: improv, a solo holiday and… talking to strangers on the tube. She regretted it instantly.
Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come follows Jess’s hilarious and painful year of misadventures in extroverting, reporting back from the frontlines for all the introverts out there.
But is life actually better or easier for the extroverts? Or is it the nightmare Jess always thought it would be?
Quotes from Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come
More than one British person has told me that only Americans and unhinged people talk to strangers.
Social anxiety is a completely normal experience. We are social animals. We want to be accepted by our peer groups and we do not want to be rejected. If people do not have any social anxiety, something is seriously wrong with them.
Strength may be impressive, but it’s vulnerability that builds friendships.
Where do selfish, godless, lazy people go to make friends? That’s where I need to be.
About Jessica Pan
Jessica Pan is the author of two books. Her memoir, Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come, is about her year of learning to be more extroverted. She is also the co-author of the memoir Graduates in Wonderland about living abroad. She is a half-Chinese American from Texas who currently lives in London as a freelance journalist. Visit the author’s website →