The Essence of John

Today I'm going back to personality types.  I mentioned before that I found a free Myers-Briggs test so I could make John take it.  I've always felt that in certain aspects, we're basically the same person so I really wanted to know how similar our test would be.  The short answer is half.  We share half of our personality traits.  John is an ENFJ which stands for Extrovert (surprise!), Intuitive, Feeling, and Judging.  We're both intuitive feelers.  The difference is I'm an perceptive introvert and he's a judgemental extrovert.  Actually he's not judgemental.  Not much anyway.  Judging basically means he's good at making quick decisions and being on time.  Except he's not great at being on time so he's not a strong J.  I would say like a medium J. 

In a nutshell, ENFJ is that person that everyone knows.  This a perfect description for John because when we started dating, we would run into people he knew every time we went out.  I felt like I was dating a celebrity.  It helps that he's very tall and sticks out in a crowd.  He's very good at making new friends which is perfect because I suck at it. 

I was so sure Bishop would be the same type as John.  Bishop is basically his little mini-me.  However, I bought a book that helps parents type their children and he got ENFP.  I was skeptical about trying to type him so early but when I read the description for a child ENFP, it fit Bishop EXACTLY.  They are the most naturally curious out of all the types and ASK THE MOST QUESTIONS.  If Bishop is not asking questions, he's probably dead.  Many of them make me want to bang my head against the wall like in this VERY common situation:

Bishop: Mommy, can I have an apple?

Me: Yes

Bishop: Why?

Why is this a question?  Because he wants to know the exact situation and circumstance that led to him getting what he wanted.  He's a little scientist.  Also extroverts tend to think out loud.  That's why they talk so much.  This piece of information has been very helpful in figuring out which of his questions actually need an answer and which are just him thinking out loud. 

I know this post is supposed to be about John but Bishop is part John technically, so I think that counts as staying on topic.  If it weren't for John, Bishop would have no personality. 

The Essence of Who We Are

I thought I would start off blog month with a light subject: personality!  It's weird that that word seems so frivolous.  When I hear 'personality', I think of choosing colors and lattes and sorting people into Hogwarts houses.  But it's the essence of your person-hood, the undefinable thing that makes you a person in this world.  It's heavy shit if you think about it.  Which I do.  All. The. Time.

I've been really into Myers-Briggs typology lately.  It was kind of a snowball effect.  I found a free test and made John take it because I wanted to know what his type was and then because I visited that website, my google homepage kept showing me articles related to MBTI, which I clicked on, which then caused google to show me even more articles.  Now half my news feed is blog posts about how your type deals with getting your toe stubbed in a crowded room while giving a speech to 50 people.  Okay maybe not that specific, but I'm not exaggerating by much.

If you're not familiar with Myers-Briggs types, I'll give you the short version.  There are 16 types based on 4 aspects of personality.  I'll use my type as an example since this is my blog and myself is the subject I'm most knowledgeable about.  My type is INFP which stands for Introvert, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving.  I guess Intuition gets to be 'N' because Introvert got there first.  The opposite would be ESTJ which stands for Extrovert, Sensing, Thinking, and Judging.  There is tons on information on the internet if you want to go down that rabbit hole.  I'm just gonna focus on me for now.

Kris is also an INFP but she's borderline INTJ so we're still pretty different.  Basically an INFP is 'they have a ton of personality and a million ideas but good luck getting it out'.  That's actually what makes us ideal writers.  We are very hard to get to know but awesome at putting our ideas in writing.  I remember wanting to be a writer as early as 5th grade and I really sucked at it back then.  At some point, I realized it was a somewhat impractical profession and tried to move on but I've still never settled on anything else.  Recently I found out that choosing a career is actually a big problem for INFPs which makes me feel a lot better.  I also found out that INFPs are the most likely out of all the types to stay home with their children.  I wonder if that is a conscience decision or if it just kinda happens by default.  I just started having kids and hadn't established a career yet so I thought 'I might as well just stay home with them'.  I am glad I got to do it though.  I guess it was a little of both: default and choice.

I think that's enough about me for now.  I will definitely talk more about types in later posts.  I know a few other people's types and I can talk about them.

So.... I will blogging every day this month.  Hopefully I can keep up.  I used to do it at lent, so this should be easy.  Kris will be joining me to.  Can't wait to see what she writes about.  She told me it's something big!