I had first taken my first Myer-Briggs Type Indicator test when I was a sophomore in high school. My art teacher, who I love, always had students take the test if we never took it yet.
As many know, you are given four letters that stand for the different functions that you have for your personality. According to the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator, there are two categories you can fall into: introvert (I) and extrovert (E), which is the first letter that you are given. The second letter, represents how information is perceived: sensing (S) or intuition (N). The third letter describes how a person makes decisions, by thinking (T) or feeling (F). The fourth and final letter represents how one goes about decisions, through judgement (J) or perception (P).
Upon taking the test for the first time, many people were shocked that I was categorized as an ISTJ, or given the characteristics of introversion, sensing, thinking, and judgement. Mostly people just thought it was weird that I was categorized as an introvert but at the time, reading through the description made sense. ISTJ's make up about 13% of the population. They are described as a logistician and they are logical and dedicated to whatever they do. A few famous figures, as well as book and movie characters, that are considered ISTJ, include George Washington, George H. W. Bush, Hermione Granger, Sting, Natalie Portman, Condoleezza Rice, Eddard Stark, and Sherlock Holmes's own Inspector Lestrade. As I read through the descriptions about the personality traits, relationships, strengths, weakness, friendships, and so on, I agreed more and more that I was an ISTJ. However, without realizing it, my personality had slowly been changing, especially once I started going to college.
The other day, when discussing ideas with another Odyssey writer, and also my editor in chief, suggested I take the personality test again. I figured why not and retook it, and I was 100% sure that I was still and ISTJ. Much to my surprise I am now an INFJ, Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Judging. I began to read through my new personality type in awe. How had I gone from ISTJ to an INFJ? I had been so proud of being an ISTJ even though I was a common personality type, now I'm categorized as potentially the rarest personality type throughout the population. I kept reading through trying to find one thing in the description that didn't make sense with who I was as a person but everything was spot on about who I am as a person! So I reread through the ISTJ personality and noticed that everything it said, described me in high school, while my INFJ personality now describes me today as I am.
INFJ's are considered advocators. A few famous figures and characters that are INFJ's were people such as Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Goethe, Morgan Freeman, Jon Snow, Galadriel from Lord of the Rings, Rose from the Titanic, and Aramis from the Three Musketeers.
I don't think that my personality changing over the past few years is bad, in fact I think it means I'm growing as a person. Everyone has their own personality and it's important to how the world functions. I'm sure my personality as a child was much different from that in high school, and I'm sure as I age, my personality type will continue to change.
If you want to find out what personality you are out of the 16 types that Myers-Brig mentions, just click here. However, the type you get doesn't necessarily mean you are that person as a whole.
