I’ve always loved the Myers-Briggs test. I love looking at the descriptions of the different personalities and seeing if I know people that seem to fit that personality. Better yet, I like asking my friends and family what personality type they are and then reading about them.
The first time I took the test was four years ago and I got I*TJ. Then, one year ago I retook the test and got ISTJ, which means that my personality barely changed, if at all.
The result of ISTJ stands for Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, and Judging. In other words, the test reflected that I was someone who was quiet, serious, goal oriented, focused more on practicality than emotions. While people with this personality are known to be extremely effective, they may also seem cold to the people. My friend Kate, an ISTJ, after taking the Myers-Briggs test told me that she was disappointed that the test told[her she was “an unfriendly, robotic, b**ch.” Yet, she was in good company. Along with myself, every single one of my friends got the result of ISTJ as well. I wondered how this could be possible. Are people with similar personalities supposed to be drawn together? Did the fact that we all had similar personalities develop because we were around each other? Did it have anything to do with the fact that a lot of us have similar interests? Does our school cultivate an environment where all high achievers are taught to be serious and quiet?
However, since the last time I took the test, I felt that my personality had changed. I began to feel as if I were more different than my friends than I was similar personality wise. Why or when this divergence happened, I am unsure. I decided to see if my Myers-Briggs personality had changed, and sure enough, it had. I was now strongly an ENFJ (specific percentages being E – 78%, N – 38%, F – 50%, J – 78%). Not only was this personality different from the personality I had originally tested as, but it was almost opposite.
I don’t know why personalities change over time, but after retesting and seeing how much my personality has changed, this is something that I am curious to look into. As I am about to go off to college next year, I am also wondering whether the personalities of my friends from high school will change as well. Similarly, I must also wonder if I will fit into a group of people similar to my friends from high school or whether I will make friends with people of different interests and personalities. It’s all very mysterious to me, but it is something I would like to look into more.
The Bard 