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Getting in on the kid trend...type this one

Thalassa

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Ok, at the prompting of Ruthie, I have decided to post a thread describing myself as a child, I guess in a similar manner to Little Linguist. I'm fairly certain I am xNFP, but waffle on the E/I divide. Maybe delving into my formative years will clear this up. Who knows?

First of all, I have very vivid memories of my early childhood, and am quite nostalgic about my life before the age of six or seven. I remember as a small child I had two imaginary friends: Tommy and Lisa. I used to like to listen to records (yes, this is when they still made records) and jump on my bed when I was about three or four. I started taking dance lessons when I was three, and liked to draw additional attention to myself by dancing on the coffee table in the living room. I loved dolls and stuffed animals more than anything, and actully liked dogs more than I do now. I was a very forthright and borderline obnoxious child, very happy and self-centered, which I suppose is normal at that age in spite of type.

My grandmother died when I was a month shy of my sixth birthday, and this shattered my world. ( My grandparents raised me because my parents divorced when I was very young, and my mother was too distraught to care for me properly. She tried to get me back, but I was already more attached to my grandparents since she had left when I was about a year old. ) I was very depressed when my grandmother died.

Anyway, my grandfather spoiled me, but he was very, very strict with me. I was raised in church and was partly educated at home by grandfather with reading and math. I knew how to read before I started school thanks to him, and he made me do math workbooks in the summer time, because early on I showed a weakness in the math department. It was never my best subject.

I was a very good student and wanted to please adults. I also liked to sing and dance to draw attention to myself. When my dance class had a recital, I competed to be in the front row on stage. I sang my first solo in church when I was seven. When my father relinquished custody of me as a baby, his one request was that I take music lessons (he was a musician) so I took piano lessons beginning at the age of eight on top of dance lessons.

I remember having a small group of female friends and having slumber parties in elementary school. My grandfather remarried a very controlling but stable and traditional ESxJ woman after my grandmother died. She made sure I did all the things a kid "should do" but by the time I was in middle school I began to rebel against what I felt was suffocating control. She made me wear clothes I didn't like, curled my hair for me every morning before school, and over-structured my time. I was a sensitive child and cried easily over sad movies, and didn't like to rough house with boys, although I did have a couple of male playmates and occasionally climbed trees. Mostly, though, I was a girly girl aside from my love of the great outdoors. I wrote my first "book" when I was eight. I wanted to be a writer even then. I got a typewriter that year for Christmas.

I read voraciously from about second or third grade on. In fifth grade we moved, and I became much shyer than I had been as a smaller child, and had a rather hard time making friends until about the middle of seventh grade, when I suddenly became very giggly and incredibly talkative and concerned with my appearance as girls that age will be. I remember playing with a few girls in my neighborhood at that age, and we would play out these elaborate imaginary scenes every day of some fantasy world we populated together, and I sometimes tried to organize my friends into dance routines or plays to perform for adults. I also LIVED on my bicycle, and liked to go to the town pool in the summer.

In eighth grade, though, I did notice that I was distinctively different than some kids my age - I remember having a deep fascination with history even in middle school, and wanting to wear outfits or dress like different time periods. I tried to write romance stories when I was thirteen. I began listening to "college radio," alternative music, and watching foreign films in the eighth grade. I used to cross stitch and crochet. There was this part of me that wanted to be old-fashioned. I kind of saw that part of myself as seperate from my social life, though, like I had two selves. By the time I started high school, I had broken away from my "preppy" middle school friends and started running around with people who were more artsy or rebellious.

In high school I was very involved in show choir, art club, and drama. However, as time wore on, I became less of a "joiner" and more and more just wanted to do unstructured activities with my friends. I continued to make good grades, but less and less wanted to do the daily detail work. I took AP English, Honors Biology, and was pretty far ahead in maths until the 10th grade when I decided I just couldn't take it any more. I officially decided that I hated math in high school. I used to write poems instead of paying attention in Algebra II. I got my formulas from Chemistry class mixed up with my Algebra formulas...yet I made a perfect score on the AP Lit Exam my senior year of high school, and got double hundreds on a project I did on schizophrenia in Anatomy and Physiology because I went so far beyond what everyone else did, my teacher didn't know what else to do to reward my efforts.

I had a very strong interest in the occult, spirituality, psychology, psychiatry, and history as well as English in high school. I continued to do a great deal of reading and research on my own outside of my school work, often preferring my own intellectual pursuits over assigned school work. I had a rather large circle of friends and acquaintences, but also liked spending time alone. My grandfather continued to be extremely strict, and I occasionally rebelled by sneaking out of my window at night or spending the night with a girl friend who had more permissive parents so that I could go to a party.

The older I got, the more and more I hated the structure of public school, even though I had liked it as a kid. I did graduate on time, though.

Then I turned eighteen, and I suppose my childhood ended there. Any questions are welcome as long as they relate to finding my type.
 

VagrantFarce

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How concerned with safety and neccessity were you as a child? Did you ever hesitate from doing something, thinking "I don't know what will happen, I'd probably feel better in the long run if I didn't bother and did something I know I will enjoy"?
 

Ruthie

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?
I'm going to be the outlier here.... I'm getting INFP. The Fi seems very strong - a great deal of attention is given to how you felt at different stages of your childhood; and self-analysis over why you had certain interests. Plus, I think the sense of nostalgia and ease with memory shows that (as we've speculated in other threads) you have a well-developed Si.
 

Thalassa

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Are you an only child?

No. I have three half-sisters from my mother's second marriage, and outside of one year in which they spent with my grandparents as well (my mother isn't the most stable person on earth, or at least wasn't when she was younger) we only played together like cousins.

When I was thirteen, my grandparents adopted three orphaned Mexican children, and I actually spent a large part of my teen years baby sitting my adopted brother and sisters. I especially liked to play with the oldest adopted sister, even when I was 17 I would go and hang out in her bedroom and talk to her when she was 9 or 10.

I now have a strong relationship with my biological sisters, but unfortunately fell out of contact with my adopted siblings when I was about 20 and started avoiding my step-grandmother, whom for many years I considered satan. She was abusive, and eventually had to be forced by the state to seek psychiatric help because she was being psychologically abusive to my adopted siblings.

It's a very awkward situation because my grandfather is now dead, and the woman divorced him before he died. I have tried to look up my three adopted siblings on-line with no luck. Contacting them would involve prolonged contact with my grandfather's ex-wife, which I have only recently considered myself emotionally stable enough to handle.
 

Charmed Justice

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It sounds like you had a lot to deal with when you were younger. When did you first start living with your adopted siblings? Were you older than 6?

Ok, you were 13. Nevermind. Yea, so you were basically an only child then. I think it might be more difficult to type only children, or people who grew up essentially as only children(didn't have siblings until much later in life). When you spend a lot of time alone, I think you strengthen many of the functions that you otherwise wouldn't have had you been around a lot of children on a consistent basis.

My Fi and Si are also very strong. I remember most things from my childhood, and am extremely sentimental about it. I have always been that way. I had a very close imaginary friend until I was about 6. I can still recall how things smelled when I was little, how things felt, what relaxed me, what made me angry. I can still feel many of the feelings I had as a child. I mean, really feel them.
 

Thalassa

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How concerned with safety and neccessity were you as a child? Did you ever hesitate from doing something, thinking "I don't know what will happen, I'd probably feel better in the long run if I didn't bother and did something I know I will enjoy"?

I was very concerned with physical safety which is why I avoided tomboyish behavior, and avoided the impressive gymnastic moves of some of my friends (like doing penny flips off of the monkey bars, or back-handsprings).

But I rarely hesitated to try something if I found it interesting in a way that I didn't think was a threat to my physical safety. Especiallly as a teenager I was quite taken with things that were new or different from the status quo or what I had been raised with.
 

Thalassa

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It sounds like you had a lot to deal with when you were younger. When did you first start living with your adopted siblings? Were you older than 6?

Ok, you were 13. Nevermind. Yea, so you were basically an only child then. I think it might be more difficult to type only children. When you spend a lot of time alone, I think you strengthen many of the functions that you otherwise wouldn't had you been around a lot of children on a consistent basis.

My Fi and Si are also very strong. I remember most things from my childhood and am extremely sentimental about it, and have always been that way.

Well, I was an only child in my formative years. As I said, I spent a year with my three sisters when I was eight, and from thirteen on helped to care for my adopted siblings. I guess it only counts in the first six years, or am I mistaken?
 

OrangeAppled

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I'd say ENFP because you sound rather extroverted. I agree that you sound like you have high Fi, and a tertiary Si streak, as opposed to the inferior distrust of Si that an ENFP may have. However, you seem to speak of yourself in terms of how you interact with people. Maybe it's because you are reflecting on the past, but I hear less about your internal self, which is what I'd expect from an INFP.

So my answer is: eNFP
 

Thalassa

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It sounds like you had a lot to deal with when you were younger. When did you first start living with your adopted siblings? Were you older than 6?

Ok, you were 13. Nevermind. Yea, so you were basically an only child then. I think it might be more difficult to type only children, or people who grew up essentially as only children(didn't have siblings until much later in life). When you spend a lot of time alone, I think you strengthen many of the functions that you otherwise wouldn't have had you been around a lot of children on a consistent basis.

I see what you mean here, yes.

My Fi and Si are also very strong. I remember most things from my childhood, and am extremely sentimental about it. I have always been that way. I had a very close imaginary friend until I was about 6. I can still recall how things smelled when I was little, how things felt, what relaxed me, what made me angry. I can still feel many of the feelings I had as a child. I mean, really feel them.

:yes:
 

Thalassa

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I'd say ENFP because you sound rather extroverted. I agree that you sound like you have high Fi, and a tertiary Si streak, as opposed to the inferior distrust of Si that an ENFP may have. However, you seem to speak of yourself in terms of how you interact with people. Maybe it's because you are reflecting on the past, but I hear less about your internal self, which is what I'd expect from an INFP.

So my answer is: eNFP

My internal self is more like something I would talk about on Live Journal, and wouldn't be comfortable doing so here as much.
 

Charmed Justice

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Well, I was an only child in my formative years. As I said, I spent a year with my three sisters when I was eight, and from thirteen on helped to care for my adopted siblings. I guess it only counts in the first six years, or am I mistaken?
Yea, usually it's the first 5-6 years when an only child orientation is expected to take place. So you'd likely have more of an only child orientation than anything else.

I've read that it can be difficult to determine introversion vs. extroversion for only children, or people who spent their formative years without siblings in the home(ex:first borns with siblings more than 5 years younger). LL had the same issue.

Introspection was a large part of my life too. There was no option really. I would be by myself in my room, turn on some music, and journal about my day, my thoughts and feelings...all of that. I've kept a consistent journal of my entire life beginning at age 8. I often desired to be alone, in peace and quiet. Having that time to reflect is so familiar to me. I find myself frustrated if I don't get time to just think and digest my thoughts-alone.
 

Thalassa

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Yea, usually it's the first 5-6 years when an only child orientation is expected to take place. So you'd likely have more of an only child orientation than anything else.

I've read that it can be difficult to determine introversion vs. extroversion for only children, or people who spent their formative years without siblings in the home(ex:first borns with siblings more than 5 years younger). LL had the same issue.

Introspection was a large part of my life too. There was no option really. I would be by myself in my room, turn on some music, and journal about my day, my thoughts and feelings...all of that. I've kept a consistent journal of my entire life beginning at age 8. I often desired to be alone, in peace and quiet. Having that time to reflect is so familiar to me. I find myself frustrated if I don't get time to just think and digest my thoughts-alone.

That makes sense - my mom often says how my nephew is sort of like an only child because he is so much older than his younger sister.

I relate strongly to the last paragraph, which would also answer Ruthie's question, that yes, it is fair to say I'm very aware of my internal world.
 

OrangeAppled

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My internal self is more like something I would talk about on Live Journal, and wouldn't be comfortable doing so here as much.

Neither would most INFPs, but there's a way of phrasing things...
I'm not discounting Fi-dom for you, but I tend to think extrovert from this info.
 

BlackCat

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If you're honestly confused by ENFP and INFP, read these and tell me which you relate to more. They're opposing, so it shouldn't be too difficult-

Delta Quadra - Wikisocion <- For ENFP
Beta Quadra - Wikisocion <- For INFP

And yes I know it's socionics, and all that crap about how some people are different, but tell me anyway.
 

BlackCat

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INFp in socionics then. How you want to take that in terms of MBTI is up to you. :D
 
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