Read the Passage! Do you agree or disagree, or can you relate to his or her opinion in the post? Can you add any thoughts or additional information that you may have found concerning their topic?
This week’s topic covers the definition of personality. If I could write down as many adjectives as I could about myself, it would sum up to about three: secretive, warm, and unsure. I know many, many people who would disagree with this assessment because they have seen me in an element of social gatherings, rather than how I am when I am clearly alone and in my own world. This isn’t necessarily a conflict either, being both secretive and warm at the same time. I find it to mean that I keep to myself and won’t speak much on my own struggles, but I am always as warm as possible to others when I am getting to know others so that I am not flagged as a threat or something like that.
If we go by the provided list, I’ll happily take affectionate – sensitive – tolerant – fearful – withdrawn. (Schultz & Schultz, 2017, p. 3)
A personality develops from our surroundings. My father was raised in poverty by his mother, alongside multiple siblings; he went into the military young, achieved a high rank in an astonishingly short amount of time, then went into the field of nursing. His personality is, in the most concise manner possible, a hot mess of denial covered by a sense of “duty” and having to always have the final say and control over others. No ifs, ands, or butts about it. My mother, on the other hand, was born an only child and was raised by her mother, her mother’s parents, and a host of family friends. She’s very quiet and prefers being alone (as opposed to my father’s constantly outgoing nature) and likes to spend her quality time recharging with a cigar or a nap. It doesn’t change the fact she’s just as ambitious as my father, studying both English and law degree tracks and teaching at a host of schools before becoming a supervisor within my local school district for students with special needs. And how ironic is it to have your only child come out with special needs?
My own personality comes as a “healthy” (heavy sarcasm there!) mixture of a middle-schild-in-charge and an only-child-in-charge-by-default, marred with my father passing down his trauma to myself and then pretending it never happened – raising me in irony. Because I was raised around adults rather than children my age, I don’t believe I ever learned how to be a child. I was always the mature one, the old soul, the adult from the get-go just by osmosis. It’s not fun. My circumstances have produced a quiet but turbulent me, but I believe I’m finally cracking my shell about it all and preparing to move forward.
