What were you like when you were younger?

[DrSketchpad]

Compare and contrast to the present if you wish.

 

[WALKYRIA]

When you add INTPness with an odd and completely unbalanced life... you get WALKYRIA.
When I was little I seriously believed I was a robot or some kind of an alien. I didnt speak and was terrified by the world till few years ago...I didnt date girls.. I tehcnicaly still don't( just short relationships)... you know INTP high standards.

People( included my own family) were seriously convinced I was some kind of a retard... untill they saw me perform and rise the societies ladder... And COntrary to their beliefs I considered myself to be some sort of misunderstood genius. I hated school with a passion undescriptible and only did the minimal possible work... I mean, the number of times I complained to my friends that high school could have been achieved twice faster and that the gov/society/school were literally consuming my precious time.( I still believe it though !). School was seriously the greatest torture I've ever endured; and paradoxically to that I consider myself a lifelong learner/academician !
When I was little, I dreamed of the day I could grow up and 1° learn how things work 2° upgrade those things 3° create new things. 4° write books. Now Almost grown up, I'm slowly coming of age...

I grew up to realize that I had crazy dreams and because noone was ever there to correct me in my foolish beliefs... I continued secretly following them even the craziest( I sill believe I'm going to become some kind of secret society leader or a businessman !).

Oh, did I mention I was an excellent sportsplayer and that I had a lot of success with girls back when they were little and hadnt all the manipulatory tendencies( because of heart multiple times broken and don't want it anymore...).
I was also some kind of quietly popular guy... You know I looked good and was a model so people assumed I was outgoing.

I wonder seriously to what extent I was an INTP... I mean, I loved clothes and fashion hard + I was in love with sport... people loved my style.
Youth was amazing.

I should check If young me wasnt ISTP after all... huhu No way...I was just an INTP in a family of full sensors I guess so.

 

[Jennywocky]

Then:

Spoiler

I was very quiet and to myself. I looked at picture books and actually taught myself to read by playing book/records on my little record player and looking at the words as they were spoken on the record. My parents didn't realize it until they sent me to school and the teacher told them I was reading. I read voraciously and had finished off the entire children's section of our public library by fifth grade, moving on to the adult section. (I first read The Lord of the Rings in 5th grade.) I read a lot of fantasy and a bit of science fiction throughout school. Pretty much all my allowance went towards books, with a little left over for music and artsy stuff.

Some of the things I liked in elementary school (besides books and art stuff) was games, puzzles, trains, dinosaurs, mythology (mostly Norse and Greek/Roman, it was the available stuff at the time), etc. By middle school and later, I studying culture/history, science (all types), and the paranormal. I got into Dungeons and Dragons in sixth grade.

We lived in a rural area, so I did go outdoors and explore. I only had a few local friends and we would play ball games (kickball, baseball, etc.). I also learned how to shoot a bow. I liked to climb trees and build things ranging from treehouses and club houses to outdoor sets to use my plastic figures/toys to tell stories. I never much liked girly dolls. But I most liked (along with tree climbing) exploring the fields and riding my bike all over the county. The culture has changed a lot since then, parents seem more fearful nowadays; but back then it was nothing for me to just hop on my bike at 10am on a weekend or in the summer with a little money and not come back home until the evening.

I was generally compliant externally, but inside I went wherever my mind wanted to go. Adults loved me and thought I was very responsible and intelligent; and I identified more with adults than my peers. I was soft-spoken and accommodating and didn't like conflict, people saw me as smart, funny, and kind. I was almost neurotic about not getting into trouble or letting people down, although part of me was also very frustrated at being so accommodating. I did not date really until my last year or two of high school.

As I got older, I am sure people began to see me as moody and internalized and withdrawn at times. While I had my depressed moods, I also could still laugh at things I found funny. I trusted emotions for artistic pursuits / self-expression but not for decision making, and I could be very critical of people who I saw as overtly sentimental. I played video games (what existed at the time), just the ones that I found fun; I officially beat Q*Bert.

I started playing music when i was five. I was probably seen as a show-off because I was good and could sightread / improvise on the spot. I could even pick up my friends' instruments without training and in a few minutes sometimes play as decently as someone who had been practicing the instrument for some time. Music was fun and also a coping strategy.

I generally was liked by people but only had a few really close friends who understood me.

Now:

Spoiler

In some ways I have changed a lot, in some ways not at all. A lot of what I've described above is still me. A few differences:
- Computers, once the PC became more popularized in the 80's and then the internet in the early 90's, became a big part of my life both professionally and privately.
- I'm less depressed than I was earlier in my life.
- I am more empowered, assertive, and speak my mind more often rather than being so passive and fearful of authority / criticism.
- Moved from a more conservative Christianity to a quasi-agnostic view.
- I still struggle with procrastination and a lack of productivity, but am capable of formulating and implementing plans and actually getting things done.
- I still am liked by people generally, but only have a few friendships that I would call "close" and I still feel rather disconnected.
- However, in some ways I feel more resigned and less hopeful. I had a lot of big but unrealistic dreams when i was young, and not much has panned out for my life as i had hoped. I do feel even more like my own person today, though.

 

[MasterProcrastinator]

I was a bit more outgoing in elementary school. I even went to/had those Chuck E. Cheese's birthday parties. I was still quiet and fairly reserved for the most part, but I had more friends then than I do now. I also played soccer for 10 years until I was 16, so I was much more active physically.

Grade wise, I mostly made A's with a few B's here and there. I also never talked back to the teachers or ever got into any trouble. Loved video games then just as much as I do now (Gameboy Color/Advance and the Super Nintendo systems were my childhood). I also read quite a bit, which carried into middle school, but declined in high school. Mostly sci-fi and a bit of fantasy/teen fiction. Middle school was where I became even more reserved and introverted. Now in college, I'm still the same quiet, reserved individual that I was in high school, except I don't hate college or half my classmates.

I also used to be religious, which remained that way until sophomore/junior year of high school, where I essentially became a pure agnostic, not leaning either way. Eventually I leaned towards atheism, which is where I'm at now (agnostic atheist).

In regards to personality type, I don't know if I have always been an INTP, or if I simply developed into the type over time. What I do know is that I've always been introverted, a dreamer (not a doer), and a procrastinator, all since childhood. So I'm not drastically different now than when I was younger, just less outgoing and less emotional.

 

[Brontosaurie]

obsessive hobbies, cataloguing things mentally. great long term memory which i was strongly compelled to exercise. very nostalgic. prominent Si theme in my everyday experience. very socially anxious. very calm, thoughtful and inhibited.

childhood sometimes makes me consider if i am ISxJ. but i think ISxJ kids bothered me with their weak imagination, herd mentality and rudimentary personal differentiation (even though of course i couldn't analyze it this way at the time) and i also exhibited a (passive) disdain for rules and tradition, little or no interest in prestige, success and acclaim etc... early on (ages 6-12) i understood things like the "butterfly effect", that distinct objects are mental heuristics while "reality" is unity, the demarcation problem, the impossibility of certain knowledge and similar. still it's like i was chasing some kind of existential truth in Si (remembering 300 dinosaur species or making up entirely pointless fantasy worlds or sorting my mp3 library). i'm glad i've given that up and assumed a more laid-back attitude toward speciic data. anyway fuck my childhood. it was scary and painful and frustrating. at age 13 or something Ji-Ne became pronounced and i became more quirky.

 

[Black Rose]

Then:

Spoiler

I was very quiet and to myself. I looked at picture books and actually taught myself to read by playing book/records on my little record player and looking at the words as they were spoken on the record. My parents didn't realize it until they sent me to school and the teacher told them I was reading. I read voraciously and had finished off the entire children's section of our public library by fifth grade, moving on to the adult section. (I first read The Lord of the Rings in 5th grade.) I read a lot of fantasy and a bit of science fiction throughout school. Pretty much all my allowance went towards books, with a little left over for music and artsy stuff.

Some of the things I liked in elementary school (besides books and art stuff) was games, puzzles, trains, dinosaurs, mythology (mostly Norse and Greek/Roman, it was the available stuff at the time), etc. By middle school and later, I studying culture/history, science (all types), and the paranormal. I got into Dungeons and Dragons in sixth grade.

We lived in a rural area, so I did go outdoors and explore. I only had a few local friends and we would play ball games (kickball, baseball, etc.). I also learned how to shoot a bow. I liked to climb trees and build things ranging from treehouses and club houses to outdoor sets to use my plastic figures/toys to tell stories. I never much liked girly dolls. But I most liked (along with tree climbing) exploring the fields and riding my bike all over the county. The culture has changed a lot since then, parents seem more fearful nowadays; but back then it was nothing for me to just hop on my bike at 10am on a weekend or in the summer with a little money and not come back home until the evening.

I was generally compliant externally, but inside I went wherever my mind wanted to go. Adults loved me and thought I was very responsible and intelligent; and I identified more with adults than my peers. I was soft-spoken and accommodating and didn't like conflict, people saw me as smart, funny, and kind. I was almost neurotic about not getting into trouble or letting people down, although part of me was also very frustrated at being so accommodating. I did not date really until my last year or two of high school.

As I got older, I am sure people began to see me as moody and internalized and withdrawn at times. While I had my depressed moods, I also could still laugh at things I found funny. I trusted emotions for artistic pursuits / self-expression but not for decision making, and I could be very critical of people who I saw as overtly sentimental. I played video games (what existed at the time), just the ones that I found fun; I officially beat Q*Bert.

I started playing music when i was five. I was probably seen as a show-off because I was good and could sightread / improvise on the spot. I could even pick up my friends' instruments without training and in a few minutes sometimes play as decently as someone who had been practicing the instrument for some time. Music was fun and also a coping strategy.

I generally was liked by people but only had a few really close friends who understood me.

Now:

Spoiler

In some ways I have changed a lot, in some ways not at all. A lot of what I've described above is still me. A few differences:
- Computers, once the PC became more popularized in the 80's and then the internet in the early 90's, became a big part of my life both professionally and privately.
- I'm less depressed than I was earlier in my life.
- I am more empowered, assertive, and speak my mind more often rather than being so passive and fearful of authority / criticism.
- Moved from a more conservative Christianity to a quasi-agnostic view.
- I still struggle with procrastination and a lack of productivity, but am capable of formulating and implementing plans and actually getting things done.
- I still am liked by people generally, but only have a few friendships that I would call "close" and I still feel rather disconnected.
- However, in some ways I feel more resigned and less hopeful. I had a lot of big but unrealistic dreams when i was young, and not much has panned out for my life as i had hoped. I do feel even more like my own person today, though.

In 1995 I saw this when I was 7:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_the_King_(1980_film)

I remember Glitch from reboot - That was where I got the idea for that drawing I made. Digimon came latter, kids said it copied pokemon.

Spoiler

http://youtu.be/fuEJWmxWkKw

(Internet/cyberspace)-> I wanted to create A.I. when I was 12, I bet it will be here soon.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/forums/topic/article-on-the-backstory-and-history-of-viv

 

[Ex-User (9062)]

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Beowulf]

I was always floating in space and very detached from my external world. I didn't care what anyone thought and was more outgoing. I think that's because i saw the good in people. But i was still an introvert as i am now. I spent a lot of my childhood by myself even though i still had many siblings. I was just a bit more open to meeting new people and it took me a longer time to lose my childhood innocence then my peers. I guess you could say that in that sense i was a late bloomer. I definitely wasted a lot of my time doing childhood things and didn't really care about growing up or anything. I was actually a straight A student in school up until highschool. Then i just lost motivation and didn't really care. I used to also have a lot of hobbies and stuff when i was a kid such as chess, model building, reading, writing, etc. As i hit teenage years they sort of faded. My teenage years were very awkward and i spent most of them just trying to understand myself better.

Now I'm way more aware of my external world and its get better everyday but my internal side is also stronger. I just learned to balance both and switch when necessary. I'm way more introverted now. And as i grow i seem to care less and less about mingling and socializing. However i am getting closer and closer to finding that sweet spot were i get just enough socializing that it doesn't start annoying me. I also am way more efficient with my time and as am growing i seem to notice that i am getting better and better at understanding my strengths and weaknesses and myself as an individual. I am doing great academically and i am enjoying college. I am also picking up former hobbies and even picking up newer ones.
I am learning to enjoy every aspect of my life. And it seems the more i grow the better my life becomes.

 

[Missfortune]

I was frigging insane.

Not much change over the years. I haven't even changed height or weight since 13.

 

[StevenM]

I was a severe loner as a child. Could not relate to anyone, and felt like a freak. I was bombarded a lot from family and peers calling me retarded, and pathetic. I seemed to really lack social skills.

I hated school a lot. I didn't do too well. Mostly in class, I was afraid and resorted to doodling. A lot of doodling, which I remember getting punished a lot for.

I spent a lot of time in my room, where I felt safe. I took apart everything just in curiosity of how it all worked, and how I can recycle it to make something original. I would spend hours building contraptions with cogs, pulleys, electric motors. My parents thought I was sick and was being destructive. I also had a weird interest in optical illusions, even though I knew it was pathetic as well.

I am not autistic, but a few people sure thought I was. I was very passive. However, a couple counselors were amazed and commented that I was very insightful because I had a very different and unique way of describing abstract concepts.

I lived in a rural area, and I also loved biking and exploring the countryside. I would leave for long periods of time. I was very athletic and fit then. That is something I really have to work on now.

As I grew older into highschool, I got kicked out of my parents, and my personality changed a lot. I resorted to drinking and smoking weed just to fit in. I also did a lot of harder drugs in that time. At least, I did make friends, even if they were not the greatest friends. At least, I was closer to being normal, and less than a freak than I was before. Supposedly.

I quit drinking, and gradually stopped the pot. I've had some run-in's with mental illness. I went to college and almost finished it. College gave me a confidence when I was the marvel of a small class, and showed me the better nature of people. I made good friends. College boosted my knowledge with technology, and I still like to occasionally tinker with electronics. Occasionally, I'll develop simple software, or create graphics.

In the short last while, I've been fixing my psychological programming. I've learned how to not fear people as much, and am still progressing at a good rate. I've learned to feel comfortable with my weak qualities (the quiet, passive, out-of-touch, zany), while incorporating them into being more inviting and social. Instead of seeing the world as something vicious and cruel, I see it as merely just very challenging . Challenges are a better way to look at it, especially where you can use your strong abilities to overcome them. I'm learning to be prepared.

 

[SilentStorm]

Well when I was really little I was horrible. The most annoying little shit of all time. I had to have everything I wanted when I wanted it. Then at about the time I turned 7 or 8 I mellowed out and was pretty much just a normal kid. Had straight A's and talked to tons of people. I stayed that way until about 8th grade, maybe a little before.

At that point I got to my "I don't give a fuck" phase. Started failing tons of classes, started smoking, drinking, and getting into all kinds of trouble. I thrived on adventure and mischief. Anything to give me a rush, almost got arrested a few times. At that point I'm guessing I would have been an ISTP.

Then once I hit my sophomore year I hit my hippy/emo/scene kid phase. Got big into music, got in a band and started doing mountains of hard drugs. I didn't care what anyone thought about me. I was all about doing what I wanted to do and I didn't care what anyone had to say about it. I even wore a wig to school with a bunch of face paint a couple time just to see how people would react, I looked like someone from Motley Crue. I was big into peace, I absolutely hated fighting and could never understand why people couldn't just get along. If I would have taken a personality test at the time I probably would have gotten INFP.

As soon as I hit my senior year I was pretty much just one of those kids that liked to party a lot. Still did hard drugs on occasion but was mainly into alcohol and weed. Went out and partied any chance I got. Barely scraped by my senior year with almost all D's. I never really saw a point in school work. If it was interesting I would fly through it. But if I didn't think it would ever apply to my life I would blow it off.

Right after senior year I was pretty much just a really hardcore pot head. Constantly smoking all day everyday all the way through my freshman year of college. That's about the time that I fully developed into an INTP. My thinking process had developed and I realized how fucking cool science is.

 

[Emerson]

As a toddler, my mom had always described me as "the boss", meaning that if I knew what I wanted I'd do whatever it took to achieve it. Back then, of course, it was most likely me running around grabbing things off counters and eating dessert before dinner.

As a child, I was pretty docile. I stayed relatively calm until around age eight or nine, when I decided I wanted to be the best in everything I did. I ended up becoming quite the competitor around that age and was eventually very good at the majority of things I strove to be great in which, at the time, included a mixture of: tether ball, hand ball, racing, and kick ball. Unfortunately, I did not strive to be great in school, have manners, and give respect, so I was quite a chore to handle. This period of my life was pretty much me waiting for recess or spending time in the principal's office.

As I reached tweenhood, I began my IDGAF phase. I had been pretty popular before due to reasons one should not be popular for, which included getting into lots of fights, but I guess I reached a new plateau of popularity the moment I decided not to care about anything I did while in school. Before, I was cautious and generally respectful towards my teachers, but I decided literally one day that I was going to change that, and I did. You could call that phase the "class clown troublemaker" phase, I suppose. My music consisted of rock and Eminem at the time and I spent all waking hours after school playing Call of Duty. This lasted a couple years into my early teens.

The moment I turned fourteen, I had been through roughly nine schools and had been up and down throughout SoCal. I was at a new school starting freshman year that consisted of mostly my ethnicity, white and asian. Up to that point, I had been in the minority in terms of race due to my mom, intelligently, saving money for a house by renting cheaply, which placed us in sketchy neighborhoods and me in predominately mexican and black schools. By my fourteenth birthday, I was a resilient yet manipulative teen. Around this time, my braces were off and my baby face was accompanied by a row of straight teeth. Though my body was skinny at the time, I worked out to define it and eventually I felt like a complete package. Obviously this is coming from a fourteen year old, so all of this shallowness is pretty much expected. Of course, I hid my arrogance and egotism under smiles and flirtatious tactics while pretending to be innocent and clueless. I effectively manipulated the majority of my class into believing I was some little angel. This went on for the remainder of the year. Around this time, I also figured out that I was at the very least bisexual after dating an entire circle of friends (both girls and guys, there were five of us), which ended in them hating each other after my manipulation of each of them.

Around the beginning of sophomore year, I began seriously considering my future. I realized school would be a breeze, as I started off with a 4.4 GPA and was already warranting attention from my counselors who advised me to strive for an even higher GPA. I figured I'd be getting around a 4.5 average over my entire high school career and a 4.6-5.0 over my sophomore and JR. year, which would allow me to go to whatever college I chose. Unfortunately or fortunately, the more I researched colleges and the tuition expenses, the more dissatisfied I was with the prospect of college. Not only was it expensive, but college was extra years of school that I just did not want to commit to. I eventually decided against college and brought it up with my parents. Eventually, they came around and let me to take a chance on the world of finance. I was allowed to drop out by taking a test, which really graduated me but it was undeniably easy and was no where near the difficulty of some high school AP classes I might've taken. After I was out, I was barely sixteen and the traits I had were the same traits I had when I was fourteen. I was an entitled, greedy, know-it-all, arrogant, egotistical, and narcissistic teenager who got his way and was out to do whatever he pleased.

Since then, I've strove to become the opposite of how I was. Admittedly, I am definitely not the man I wish to become quite yet, but the dust has settled a bit and I am seeing the path to that goal a bit more clearly now. I'm currently sixteen still. A lot was left out of this life's story, but of course it has to be unless I was willing to write a book and post it to this thread. Though I can say that life in the past six months has changed me for the better. I suppose I'm still young, which can be both exciting and disappointing at times, but I am enjoying it. I realize the opportunities that I have been given are rare, and I no longer take for granted the help I receive as well as the friends I have and the advice given to me by those who know better. I guess what I am most proud of is my realization that being kind serves me much greater than me being intelligent. This realization has helped me grow far faster than I otherwise could have, as it has allowed me to step off the pedestal and walk amongst others as equals. That's where I am at right now.

Now, I'm not entirely sure where I was heading with this, as I left the thread for a good twenty minutes to do something, so I suppose I'll end it here with a quote that relates to the thread:

"Every act you have ever performed since the day you were born was performed because you wanted something."
-Andrew Carnegie

 

[Basilisk]

When I was younger I was very physically active and outgoing, and now... well, the exact opposite.

 

[Pizzabeak]

I used to be fat now I'm fat

 

[Perfectly Normal Beast]

i was extremely confused. i am now somewhat less confused.