The Brutally Honest Assessment of How Weird Your Type Is

I reveled in my weirdness and trolling teachers I did not like in high school, but my experience at my first university was a bit different. Fitting in was not so easy, and when we were tested for MBTI in a communication/psychology class my sixth semester, my uniqueness seemed to be confirmed in black and white (or was it black and manila?) when I found out I was the only ENTJ out of about 100 students in the class.

So what was my adolescence like as an intuitive? From what I’ve heard from other ENTJs, a lot more comfortable and happy than that of most other ENTJ females. I had the coaching and guidance of an ENFJ father, who told me even his very popular ESFJ sister, as well as his very popular girlfriends,  would come home from school crying every day when they were my age. (Mind you, I knew nothing about MBTI or letters or any of this psychology stuff as a teen, other than a few things like OCD and a few books I had to read in seventh grade gifted class about crazy people – I’m typing based on what I know now.) I had academic mentoring and nerd empathy from the womb from my ENTP mother, to the point of irritation at times. She was the kind of mother who would brush off things like cheerleading and pep squads as “frivolous” and “bimbo” activities. Participation in drama and foreign language clubs were heavily encouraged instead, and I had no objection to that.

The Rational (NT) Moms have gone crazy over this retooling of a Girls’ Life cover recently and that’s exactly the kind of stuff my mother would do when I was a teen.

I’m older now. I’ve seen how my high school classmates have turned out because we have all kept in touch over the years. I do not have children of my own, but my siblings do. My friends also have kids. Each of them is unique. Young people are diverse and celebrate it nowadays. Some teens have sexuality or gender diversity and celebrate that. Some teens are on the autism spectrum and find others like themselves to connect with so they don’t feel so alone. I even know one young person who fits into all of those categories. However, there is still kind of a standard in schools of what is considered “normal” and what is considered “bully-able” behavior, and bullying is much worse these days than it was when I was a teen. I have heard the horror stories.

So when I make this list, I do so in a spirit of comedy, and if you see your personality type on a list that offends you, make the best of it and keep in mind where this author’s falls and realize that no one was spared from deprecation, not even herself. Celebrate what makes you unique and don’t let the bullies get the best of you.

How weird were you in school? Here are the sixteen types divided up by magnitudes of strangeness. As you can see, I did not even spare my own type, so I’m being 100% fair.

I hope you realize this is a joke, but in case you didn’t, I’m kidding, okay?

Personality typing is far more complex than MBTI tests, especially the low-quality ones you take online. There is another test available that tests for levels of neurosis versus calmness (The Big Five). Surprisingly, you might be better at certain fields if you are “a weirdo” than others who are “normal”. My father often told me the story of Barbara Streisand, who used her very ethnic nose as her trademark in show business. (Apparently Jennifer Grey’s father never told her that story, and we haven’t really seen her in movies since Dirty Dancing.) What might appear initially as a disadvantage can become a unique asset. Use it as such.

You might be wondering why I have  not written about The Big Five test before. It is because there is already plenty of information available on this test online. It is a good test and I like it. End of story.

And it will tell you legit for real if you’re weird.