I just play an extrovert on TV

Mary Jo Putney over at Word Wenches wrote a very interesting post about Introverts vs. Extroverts last week. She provided a link to take a personality test. So I moseyed on over to here:



http://www.kisa.ca/personality/



And took the test. Here are the results.



Test Results
Your personality type is INFP.


Introverted (I) 82% Extraverted (E) 18%
Intuitive (N) 73% Sensing (S) 27%
Feeling (F) 75% Thinking (T) 25%
Perceiving (P) 55% Judging (J) 45%





I would say that this is pretty accurate. I'm mainly an introvert, although I can play an extrovert when I need to. One of the good things about being President of RWA NYC, is that it's brought me more out of my shell. It's hard to be an introvert when you're a leader. Now, I'm the one pulling people from behind potted plants at our GAA awards, hectoring them to talk to editors and agents, and introducing them to people. Greeting new people at our meetings, and having them introduce themselves. But I can tell you that I'm drained after an RWA meeting from dealing with everyone.



Frankly, I was really surprised when I was nominated to run for Vice-President, because I pretty didn't think anyone knew who I was. I used to come to meetings and sit in a corner, keeping my mouth shut most of the time. I interacted with a few people but by and large, I wasn't one of those people who walked into a room and dominated it with my personality.



My BFF on the other hand is a total extrovert. She's at 150% 24 hours a day. She feeds off people's energy, and loves being the center of attention, particularly if the attention is coming from men. Me, I prefer male attention when it's coming from males that I want to attract. Random males don't do it for me. I don't need that much affirmation that I'm attractive.



Me, I have a tendency to be incredibly empathetic, so I can get bombarded with people's emotions. Which is why I hate crowds. But I love going to RWA conferences, even though for 2 or 5 days, I'm going at 90 miles an hour, sparkling, twinkling, putting myself out there until I just want to take a long bath with some bubbles and a book.

I'm been an introvert since childhood. As a kid, I was very shy unless I was around people that I knew. I was much more of a Scorpio then, naturally suspicious of people, and I spent a lot of time hiding behind my mother's skirts. I hated new situations which is why it's probably a good thing that I went to the same school for twelve years. But things like going away to sleep-over camp were torture for me, not to mention I was going through puberty early which made it even harder.

I didn't really come out my shell until I went to London when I was sixteen. I was so comfortable there, that I was able to show my true personality. The same thing happened in college when I did my semester abroad in London. All of a sudden, people considered me to be fun.

Now that I'm older, it gets easier and easier to be "out there" but it still takes a lot of energy, and sometimes I'm just not up to it.

Introvert or Extrovert: What are you?