When it comes to being different, I’m an oddball six ways from Sunday:
I’m a natural redhead (which is statistically about as likely as being born intersex, which I may also have been).
I’m transgender (if I wasn’t born intersex and surgically altered as an infant, something my parents may not even have been told about)
I’m INFJ on the Myers-Briggs Personality Scale, which is the rarest of the 16 personality types, making up just one to three percent of the human population.
I’m a professional writer.
None of these oddball human characteristics exceed 3% of the human population
No wonder I have always felt like a stranger in a strange land. I’m so wildly different from the vast majority of people that I’d be delusional to consider myself “fitting in” (despite feeling “normal” for me!). Perhaps that’s why I’m a loner despite the fact that there’s a huge ham living inside me. I became a writer because I have a lot of say but I’m too introverted to blurt it out! (“Writing is show business for shy people.”)
About INFJ’s
INFJ’s have been characterized broadly as The Healer, The Thoughtful Idealist, The Mediator, The Counselor and The Protector. “INFJ’s possess a robust sense of justice and dedicate themselves to making the world a better place. Yep, yep, yep, yep, and yep!
Among the most well-known INFJ individuals are Carl Jung, Mahatma Gandhi, Oprah Winfrey, EleanorRoosevelt, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Princess Diana, Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Seuss, Jesus of Nazareth, Maya Angelou, Lady Gaga, Fred Rogers, FDR, Robert F. Kennedy (Senator and Attorney General in the 1960’s until his assassination in 1968), DeForest Kelley, Eckhart Tolle, Barack Obama, Malala Yusafzai, Plato, Celine Dion, Bono, and Vincent van Gogh. In the literary characters group, INFJ’s are represented by Princess Leia, Dr. Who, and Frodo Baggins.
Indeed, Oddballs all!
What they have in common: COMPASSIONATE SPIRITS despite the trials and tribulations that they’ve been put through during their lifetimes.
Saddled with these oddball characteristics, I have been pointed out in various ways since early childhood.
I remember a tour guide once “warming his hands” over the top of my bright red hair to accentuate the fact that I’m a ginger. We were at the Oregon Vortex and he thought Laurel (my older sister, also a redhead) and I were “CAMPFIRE COLOR” redheads.
I was the “tomboy” in my family. (That was the term for transgender and gender nonconforming “girls” back in the day.) I asked for (and got) train sets, plastic horses, erector sets, hammering toys, and plastic fighting men during birthdays and Christmases.
And when I got old enough to start wondering about my personality type, I discovered the Myers-Briggs Personality Scale, numerology, and other tests to find out where I stood. In none of them, did I reach the threshold of “normalcy.”
My numerology test said I could possibly become the first woman president of the United States! Had I gone into politics (which I briefly considered) who knows if that prophecy would have come true? What a dreadful responsibility to decide to take on for all the right reasons. Bless those who do that, like Bernie Sanders, RFK (Senior), and — I hope one day — AOC.
And my IQ test in high school placed me near genius level (135; less than two percent of the population scores this high) , which prompted my mother to kindly (verbally) prompt me to live up to my potential — so I shifted into high gear and earned better grades.
A New Perspective
In the past, when I looked at some loved ones and some public figures, I’d think, horrified, “What are/were you thinking?!” BUT NOW (suddenly/belatedly), I realize that they don’t have the skillset to think the way I do. (Introverts are intuitive and adept cause/effect analysts.) They aren’t deficient, as deficiency is defined in the dictionary. They are the norm. I’m the oddball!
I see people making life-altering bad decisions (including romantic and non-romantic and political alliances) that I can spot from a mile away, and I have to keep my mouth shut. “Not my circus, not my monkeys.” I’m not in charge of other people’s decisions or life trajectories. I have to watch the train wreck happen in slow motion and just shake my head. I have to think, “Bless their hearts” (because their hearts are GOOD, usually!!!) and then brace for impact.
I tend to think that if INFJ’s ruled the world (instead of just inspiring others to treat it the way we would), we’d live in healthier, happier times.
Alas, we are in the minority. I can’t tell you the degree to which this statistic saddens me.
There is a better way. I sincerely hope we survive as a species long enough to recognize and embrace it because we will take a lot of other fabulous species and individuals right along with us if we fail… and that’s just not fair.
