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So, this past week a few co-workers and I took the
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and had a three-hour-long workshop with someone from the career center to talk about different work styles and communication patterns and whatnot. Team-building kind of stuff. My results came back INFP which is basically the wussiest, most emotional, and impractical personality type possible. They have a nicer way of putting it: I’m an idealist.
Let me break it down for you. The I stands for Introverted: focused on an inner world of ideas and impressions. I was off the charts on that one, by the way. The N stand for Intuitive as opposed to Sensing. Sensing people look at the actual world around them to draw conclusions. Intuitive people, you know… intuit things. The F stands for Feeling instead of Thinking, and by now I’m just feeling really mortified that this career counselor has exposed me as the weepy sentimental idiot that I am. And finally, the P stands for Perceiving as opposed to Judging. In short: I am the most irrational person on the face of the earth. My feelings, whims, intuitions, and indecisiveness outweigh deadlines, facts, reason and law. (This is not news to Tim, unfortunately, who values logic and reason over all else. Arguing with me is like trying to reason with a child. A drunk child. A mean, drunk child who really, really wants their very own pet unicorn.)
I got a three-page photocopy detailing my INFP disorder and I was really hoping that I would find some glaring non-truth within it. Something that I could point to and say “Ah-ha! I’m not an INFP because it says here that INFPs eat with their feet! I don’t do that! I am logical! I am practical and reasonable and rational!” No such luck. Instead I found a frighteningly accurate portrait of myself. Some parts even made me wonder if they had been in my house: hiding when the doorbell rings? How did they know that?! (jk. I only hide when the phone and the doorbell ring at the same time.)
Next entry: Does being an INFP make me a better librarian????
Friends, family, strangers who searched for World War Two fighter planes and somehow ended up at my blog… Please note that I have finally found an answer for that age-old question: What do you want for your Christmas/birthday/anniversary/librarian day present?
A piggy-bank disguised as a BOOK!!!
the MoMA gift store has started carrying this ingenious device. Sure to stump burglars and nosy relatives. Oh, and some money to go in it would be good, too. Thanks!
I didn’t really anticipate ever updating this thing again, but something about the new year has me feeling a little frisky. One of my resolutions is to be more productive. Not in the goal-oriented over-achiever kind of way… More like: I need to take on random projects in order to feel good. So whether it’s a loaf of bread or a picture or a blog entry or whatever, I’m just trying to make more of my idle time.
A related resolve is to stop thinking about goddamned school. I’m one of those people that would happily go back to school over and over and over again until I had amassed enough initials behind my last name to require an unfolding business card. Ever since I got out of library school, I’ve been scheming about all the other degrees that I would like to go back and get. Student loans? Whatever, I ‘ll pay them off eventually. So, I’ve managed to hold down a full-time job for the last year but not without taking a class on the side. I’ve been collecting information and applications for different MFA and PhD programs. I even started filling out the FAFSA.
But, I realized on the last day of 2008 that I’ve never been able to go more than a year without getting myself enrolled in school (except for those golden years between age 0 and 5). Don’t I owe it to myself (and to Tim) to try and just… I don’t know. Relax? I have all these hobbies that I never have time for, and I have a great house and husband and dogs and access to any book that I want in the world… Wouldn’t it be great to just spend an entire year of my life enjoying my free time?
On some level I know that I’m thinking ahead to having kids and that makes me feel like I need to go to school NOW, before there’s a family involved. On the other hand, we were in southern California last week visiting family and at one point I looked around and realized that we were the only married couple in the room without kids. Holy crap, what a beautiful realization!! It’s rarely lost on me, actually. I totally recognize and appreciate this stage of life that I’m in right now, and I can’t imagine how far away these days will seem once there are munchkins running around. It’s hard for me, but I’m trying to just take a deep breath and remember that there is time for everything. I’m only 28 for godsake.
So call me a self-indulgent slacker if you like, but for me, 2009 will be the year of free-time. Amen.
