There's this one story that my dad tells people where I was working with my grandpa who has passed away but was a genius (incidentally, I would have loved to talk to him now that I'm older but he passed away before I was 12). In this particular story I was proabably about 7 or 8 and my grandpa is explaining to me how to use my watch as a compass by adjusting for daylight savings time and aligning the watch with the sun and so forth. After taking the time to go through all the procedures involved in this he asks me, "so what are you going to do next time you get lost?" And I say, "use a cell phone and call someone"..lol.
I suppose the above encapsulates my personality in a nutshell. Growing up as an INTJ was not easy for me. I was daydreamer, but my head wasn't up in the clouds when I was alone and thinking, on the contrary it was usually staring at the ground and engrossed in deep thought. I can remember walking home alone (probably around 10 or 11) and being stopped by my grandpa (my other other grandpa) who was driving past and he asked me why I walked with my head down? Then, at 10 years old, I took this as an indication to correct my posture. Now that I'm older realize it wasn't about posture, it was about an unhappy 10 year old with the weight of the world on his shoulders.
Moreover, I was always getting in trouble growing up. In grade 3, I had made it into the gifted program but was held back by my teacher due to behavioral issues (I was in the principle's office daily) and he claimed that I didn't read enough. My parents contested this and took it to the principle but were ultimately unsuccessful in changing the outcome. Looking back, it probably would have been the best thing for me because it would have afforded me some recognition for my abilities which would have been fuel for academic achievement. None the less, at one point I was banned from going in the school yard at lunch because I was too disruptive. Instead, I had to report to the principle's office every lunch where I would draw pictures and occasionally play chess with the principle. None the less I was a very shrewd INTJ. In grade 2, my Jewish teacher whom I had a huge crush on sent me to the office. Out of anger, I drew a big Nazi sign in my notebook and tilted it so one of her colleagues could see as he walked by (and this was eventually translated to her). Even at 7 years old, I had some grasp of the magnitude of the atrocities committed against the Jews and used this as a means to express my anger toward this teacher. Fighting was a weekly (if not daily) routine, especially when I moved on to middle school in grade 6. I had a lot of anger and no real friends (at this school anyways) except a few other pariahs who weren't very close at all. I played hockey on the side but that's just because I love sports, not that I had any connection with any of the guys. When you're a guy growing up and you're involved in sports, size is everything and I was short. Suffice it to say that I learned to scrap pretty quickly. Still more, I hated the politics of fighting when I was young. I would throw a guy down and give him some shots and a bleeding nose (take a few shots as well) and people would tell me that I lost after which never really made any sense to me. Incidentally, I came to overcome this by getting involved in boxing in high school winning the provincial championships in 2001, placing third in the country, and later beating the champion at my weightclass to be ranked 1 in the country.
At high school, I met a person who would come to be my best friend and whom I want to be my best man when I get married. He's an INFJ, for the record. However, partway through he switched schools (for various reasons) and I was essentially left alone. I had been spending every single lunch with him literally for 2 years and we just clicked extremely well. When he left I had no friends, yet still had a huge pride and the ego to be aware that I had no friends. I didn't think anyone was worthy of me and I reasoned that I would rather be alone than hang out with these hacks. It was bad to the point where I would be getting food at the local plaza and not have anywhere to sit, and even though people liked me I thought it would be extremely random to just go and sit at someone's table. Accordingly, I would go off to nearby stores or sleep to fill the time and avoid the embarrassment and humiliation being seen alone all the time. I simply couldn't assimilate and felt a need to protect myself from them. Incidentally, things weren't as bad in my fourth and fifth years of high school for various reasons (in fifth I got a girlfriend and that opened a window into my feeling side that I'd never experienced before).
Overall, growing up I was interested in sports, drawing, the outdoors, building models, collecting things, chess, movies, and so forth. And yes, I was obsessed with Ninja Turtles.