Am I just abnormal? Am I actually the wrong one here?
My family find me spending my out-of-work time "doing nothing" and solitary hobbies "not normal". Every once in a while, they (namely my younger sister) brings this up, and it is just exhausting.
I (30yoM, single) love to keep to myself. I don't enjoy company, and meetings and non-constructive conversations at work is already pretty draining, so I don't want to socialize unless absolutely necessary outside of work. I have a good relationship with my coworkers, so we go out once in a while for dinners, drinks, or rarely picnics.
I have only few hobbies:
- I go to archery at least every three days after work.
- I go pistol shooting almost every two weeks.
- I'm a big ramen lover, so weekends I go out by myself and try out different ramen places.
- I enjoy tea, so I like to take my time to brew fresh tea at home and just relax.
- I enjoy cooking. Though exhausting, I find meal prepping on Sundays very fun and stress-relieving.
- I play gatcha games like Genshin on a regular basis, and occasionally I'll come across a non-anime/non-gatcha "actual game" as judgy people like to call them, and play it through over the course of 3 weeks or so.
On weekends, I usually stay at home unless I need to get groceries, or just feel like going to a cafe for some light coffee and pastries. Compared to what is described to me as "normal", I don't got to meetups, I don't want to socialize and make new friends outside of work, and I certainly do not want to part take in events like concerts.
But my family, especially, my sister 2 years younger than me, find it strange and unacceptable, like "this is not normal and you are trapping yourself in a vicious cycle of closure" kind of unacceptable. She claims that I MUST makes friends outside of work to maintain a normal social life, I NEED to do things on weekends or else I'm just "depressed" and "lazy", the latter of which may stem from being depressed. We have these long conversations of her basically just judging me and claiming that it is just socially abnormal and unacceptable for me to live like this.
And I just find this incredibly disrespectful and deflating, since it is coming from family, the one place that I thought I'd find acceptance and acknowledgement of my unique or peculiar life style. Personally, I see it as myself embracing a life of solitude by choice, and I see no issue with it.
But I may be wrong. And so I am here. This may not be the best place for objective advice, but honestly I'd just like some opinions from fellow introverts on this matter. Please tell me honestly, am I really just the odd one? Am I just doing things wrong to be judged like this? I don't know anymore.