OK ... at the risk of derailing this thread ... in what branch of the military did you serve? I found that my INTP type was a disastrous match for the military ... nothing but the T fit. So ... I have to ask ... how did you fare?
You and I exchanged a couple posts about this back a few months ago on the other board. I was in the enlisted ranks in the Marines from 74-78 and then again from 82-85. You wanted to know how an INFP fared in the Marines.
I basically viewed the enlisted ranks of the military as just one more blue collar job. I didn't get my B.A. until age 32, so I worked a lot of blue collar jobs in my time. For an intelligent person, pretty much all blue collar jobs suck. Being in the enlisted ranks of the military was no worse than any other blue collar job, and I would even say that it was better than many.
Also, my first enlistment was during an interesting time. The U.S. was still in Vietnam when I joined up (I got sent over there in 1975 for Operation Frequent Wind and the evacuation of Vietnam). The draft had already ended and the military had gone all-volunteer, but the pay was low and no one wanted to join up in case Vietnam heated up again. So the courts allowed criminals to trade in jail time for joining the Marines.
So the Marine Corps was full of convicts, the staff NCOs were burnt-out combat vets just marking time until they could collect a pension, we had about just about zero budget and all the equipment was busted or outdated, discipline was shot to hell, and no one gave a crap. Frankly, it was kind of fun.
Also, I ended up in Signals Intelligence (communications intercept) and did constant TDY/TAD or field assignments all over Southeast Asia and the Pacific, on ships, and even as far abroad as Australia and Germany. Whenever I got bored at my parent unit, I just signed up for another TDY or field assignment and headed abroad to somewhere new.
The second enlistment was a little more stifling than the first. Reagan was giving the military big budgets, the pay was higher, people were starting to volunteer for military duty again, the Marines had tossed out all the convicts and old crazy vets and raised the entrance requirements, and discipline was a lot tighter. But I was a senior sergeant (E-5) by that time, so I called my own shots pretty much.
Anyway, like I said, I don't think the enlisted experience in the military was any worse than most crappy blue-collar jobs, and it was significantly better in some ways. But I expect it was a different story in the officer ranks where you served.
The ballroom dancing thing appeals to me, or salsa dancing. I think my wife and I might take it up as well. We liked going to a local Latin club here a while back. Might take it up again on a more instructional level. Getting more in touch with my S.
Yes, I think it's great quality time together for married couples, too. Get dressed up, take the wife on the town, have a few drinks and move her around the dance floor a bit…
I took some instruction with my first wife, including some lessons at Fred Astaire. But with my current wife, I just taught her at home some of the steps I remembered or had written down, and then we got a library of dance instruction videos so that we could pick up steps at our own speed. So we're not much on form and style since we haven't had formal instruction together, but we know a lot of dances and steps. We do all the standard Ballroom and Latin dances at a solid intermediate level, plus some regional dances like West Coast Swing, Zydeco, etc.
The main thing, I've found, is that I need to have my steps and leads down really well. My wife is a great follower and doesn't actually need to practice all that much with me. The lead is the critical part, so practice is more important for me than for her. So after dinner I regularly disappear down into the basement alone with a tall bourbon and sambucca, crank up the music, and go over my steps until I can move through them confidently and smoothly. Then, when we hit the dance floor out in town, it's just up to my wife to keep up with me (which she does very well).
FL