Weirdos Like Me

There was a time a couple of years ago when I was first starting my book, "Telling Hands," that I happened upon a pretty in-depth personality test. Since I was the subject of the book, I thought it research to complete the test. The iPersonic Personality Test takes only a few minutes to take, and it will tell you which of the sixteen Myers Briggs Type Indicators you belong to. I held my usual skepticism while answering the questions, but the results were astonishingly accurate.

The results came back that I was an INFP. The test gives you suggestions on which career you should pursue based upon your personality. It said I should be either a teacher or a writer! I was already a teacher and was working on my first book, so I'd say it was pretty good. I wished then that I had taken the test ten years ago, it would have made the search for a suitable job easier.

Being that I am proficient at research -due to my love of learning- I looked up famous INFPs to get a feel of who would be some-what like me. As it turns out I had already developed a preference for many of the famous INFPs listed. Many of them were authors; George Orwell, J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare, and others. One of the artists listed was my favorite painter Vincent van Gogh. I used to have a copy of "Starry Night" hanging on my wall at the age of fourteen. After my wreck when I was sixteen, I threw away my notebooks of poetry and eventually got rid of the van Gogh print, because I didn't understand it. I couldn't remember the connection.

"Starry Night" Vincent van Gogh

After restoring myself to my former self, (confusing, right?) I also restored the connection to my inner world that, as an introvert, is actually my strength. Publishing a book about my life was possibly the hardest way to start a writing career, but it had to be done. I had to put it all together so I could move forward to write about other things.

I have since started painting. I love it. I have completed three, thus far, and like the writing, it feels right. I have so many ideas of what I want to write, and what I want to paint. INFPs make up only 4% of the population, and even though I don't have many INFP friends, I can read the writings of the great creative INFPs that came before me, and look at Van Gogh's paintings; enjoying the other worlds the weirdos like me have created. I know they aren't really weird, they are just different, and beautiful, but in their own way.


Sincerely,
Jamie Godwin Brooks
Telling Hands