Thalassa
Permabanned
- Joined
- May 3, 2009
- Messages
- 25,183
- MBTI Type
- ISFP
- Enneagram
- 6w7
- Instinctual Variant
- sx
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.
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.