The 'I' in INFP

If you've ever done a Myers-Briggs Personality Profile, you'll recognize "INFP" as the acronym for Introverted-iNtuitive-Feeling-Perceiving - which is my personality type. I took a new Myers-Briggs when I first started my career counseling sessions, with the report being (duh) career-oriented. It was really interesting, but it's the "I" - Introverted - that's on my mind at the moment.

You see - the test results for each section of the profile came back as a "score" on a continuum of -30 to +30. On the extrovert/introvert scale, I scored...

+1.

For real. I was one point off of dead center, in favor of introversion. And thinking back to the test, I can even pinpoint the questions that I wavered on, that might have pushed me a point or two toward extroversion instead. I've always thought of myself this way - I like to call myself a "shy extrovert" or an "outgoing introvert" depending on my mood - but it was interesting to see it laid out in black and white. Cindy (my career coach) came up with the perfect analogy for this middle-of-the-road-ness...she said, "I bet you're the type of person who likes to go to coffee shops to read or study. You like being around people, but you don't really need to interact with them." So true!

The whole reason this topic is on my mind is a result of the garage sale - I've had more face-to-face social interaction in the past two days - with strangers, even! - than I generally have in a month. And I've really enjoyed it, but now that we've closed up shop for the day, I want nothing more than to pop in a movie, crawl into bed and not talk to anyone for the next 12 hours.