In today's mail from a 16 year old infp introvert ...
I had stumbled across the MB test several months ago, and I had never learned so much about myself since then. It has been difficult being an INFP living in a house of extroverts. My mother is an extrovert, and so is my twin sister. Growing up in a family of realists was difficult, and now in the middle of my teenage years, feelings are clashing, as College draws nearer and I am receiving mixed suggestions for what I should do with my life. My need to please people always caused me to lean on a person's suggestion or want, regardless of what I would really want to do.
However, as more and more people are asking me what career I would want, and family members intructing me to hold a steady office job, I find it more easier to look at my own type and know what I myself would want. When someone asks me "What do you want to do with your life?" I am inclined to reply "A writer, or an actress" but now I see myself replying simply "I want to change the world" This statement has given me perplexed looks, or laughs.
But I see myself impacting change, and equality, helping people. However, my quiet nature has earned me comments such as "You just sit there and do not do anything, lazy people do not get anywhere" or "You cant even clean your room, what are you going to do with your life?"
I am not lazy. I am thinking. I can sit down on my couch and dream and live in my thoughts all day long. In that sense, I am doing something, and in the long run, it is probably more useful than vaccuming and propping the pillows on the couch. Dreaming is magnificent and hard work, and everyone is entitled to it.
Sometimes I feel as though my worse enemy is myself. I am battling with myself every single day. I kick myself when I cannot help a friend, or I lose a contest, or I am not perfectly friendly at any point during the day. If I do not do those things, I am an awful person, I will be going to hell, I let the entire world down. The guilt had caused me to distress, and then I would feel guilty for feeling guilty.
I suppose this is the burden that we must fight when we are INFP's. But burdens are a gift, because we can overcome them and come out stronger. Being gifted with a vibrant imagination, a chivalrous and noble outlook on good vs. evil, the will to fight for other people, what can be more productive than that?
-- Liz, age 16
I had stumbled across the MB test several months ago, and I had never learned so much about myself since then. It has been difficult being an INFP living in a house of extroverts. My mother is an extrovert, and so is my twin sister. Growing up in a family of realists was difficult, and now in the middle of my teenage years, feelings are clashing, as College draws nearer and I am receiving mixed suggestions for what I should do with my life. My need to please people always caused me to lean on a person's suggestion or want, regardless of what I would really want to do.
However, as more and more people are asking me what career I would want, and family members intructing me to hold a steady office job, I find it more easier to look at my own type and know what I myself would want. When someone asks me "What do you want to do with your life?" I am inclined to reply "A writer, or an actress" but now I see myself replying simply "I want to change the world" This statement has given me perplexed looks, or laughs.
But I see myself impacting change, and equality, helping people. However, my quiet nature has earned me comments such as "You just sit there and do not do anything, lazy people do not get anywhere" or "You cant even clean your room, what are you going to do with your life?"
I am not lazy. I am thinking. I can sit down on my couch and dream and live in my thoughts all day long. In that sense, I am doing something, and in the long run, it is probably more useful than vaccuming and propping the pillows on the couch. Dreaming is magnificent and hard work, and everyone is entitled to it.
Sometimes I feel as though my worse enemy is myself. I am battling with myself every single day. I kick myself when I cannot help a friend, or I lose a contest, or I am not perfectly friendly at any point during the day. If I do not do those things, I am an awful person, I will be going to hell, I let the entire world down. The guilt had caused me to distress, and then I would feel guilty for feeling guilty.
I suppose this is the burden that we must fight when we are INFP's. But burdens are a gift, because we can overcome them and come out stronger. Being gifted with a vibrant imagination, a chivalrous and noble outlook on good vs. evil, the will to fight for other people, what can be more productive than that?
-- Liz, age 16
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