If you've taken the Myers-Briggs personality test, you're probably aware of the 16 major personality types. I'm one of the 7% who happens to fall in the ENFP category, otherwise known as extravert-intuitive-feeling-perceiving people!
We're a weird breed, us ENFPS. I am a rabid extrovert who also needs alone time almost as much an introvert. This is because I take much more time to process interactions, and I also have way more going internally than I let people know.
If you have no idea what it's like to be an ENFP, here's a couple of struggles we face (list inspired by Heidi at Thought Catalog).
1. Getting all your energy from social interaction but you hate superficiality.
You also want every single interaction to be deep and it's a struggle because of course not every interaction can be earth-shatteringly profound.
2. Always being aware of what the cool kids are doing but also wanting to be yourself.
So you end up doing your own thing, and that's actually the coolest of all in the end.
3. Needing time to process stuff but also wanting to do ALL THE STUFF ALL THE TIME EVERYWHERE!
It doesn't always work out.
4. Being an idea generator and then never following through on the actual ideas.
I have a notebook lying around somewhere that probably has the cure for cancer in it.
5. Regularly forgetting that your physical needs exist.
What's a bathroom? Oh shoot, I haven't been since this morning. Should probably go do that. Did I eat lunch? Should probably do that too.
6. Seeing every side to a situation. And I mean, every side.
This is why Politics are so hard for me, but it's also an advantage because it gives me a boatload of empathy.
7. People think you're a huge flirt when you're actually not.
You have had multiple boys (or girls) tell you to stop flirting and that they weren't interested, but you weren't actually flirting. You were literally just making conversation.
8. You are a Force Of Nature regarding creativity and discipline, but only an hour before a deadline.
Inexplicably, Your best work happens during time crunches.
9. You take on way more than you know you're able to do, and then you do everything anyway because you want to prove yourself to everyone.
This one is sort of a self-drag, but I continue to do it anyway. Us ENFPs never learn, do we?
10. People underestimate your intelligence because you tend to reveal the fun and bubbly parts of yourself first.
Which can lead to minds being blown once they get to know the real you.
11. You love everyone so much but you love certain people THE MOSTEST and they just don't get that.
Everyone is your friend, but then you have your close friends and your closest friends, and then your family. It's not that hard, seriously.
12. You look up EVERYTHING because you're curious.
Sometimes you regret your curiosity.
13. You process verbally and people often reply, thinking you're asking for help, when you're actually just thinking out loud.
Sometimes a stream of consciousness is just me getting my thoughts straight.
14. People don't realize their interactions with you barely scratch the surface.
You have a boiling cauldron of thoughts, emotions, and wild daydreams that are masked by a placid countenance.
