What do I have in common with both Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey? If you guessed that I am black and older than 40 years old with an uncanny ability to attract housewives, then obviously you know me very well. But there is more to our similarity than meets the eye. Indeed, Barack, Oprah and I have a personal bond - our personalities.
According to the Myers-Briggs personality test, we are ENFJs; in other words, the best. ENFJs are celebrated for their modesty. And sarcasm. Just kidding - though not about being the best. The ENFJ personality is actually called "The Giver," and we are known for our people skills, social prowess, compassion and decisiveness. I guess that explains why I am secluded alone in a dark room on a Saturday night, interacting with all of you strangers through a keyboard, not the slightest bit remorseful for eating someone else's pizza last night - thank you for saving me a trip to Littlejohn's for the second time in four hours - and still deciding whether I should be out even though I am in pajamas. Extroverted? Check. Caring? Check ...
The first time I took this test and read the results, it was practically an out-of-body-experience: personality test is to me as dropping acid is to Phish concert. When I was reading the description, I simultaneously saw myself from afar and became more in touch with myself than ever before. So maybe I was at the Phish concert after all. The experience was like watching a video of yourself that you did not know was being filmed. You obviously recognize yourself and your features, but your voice sounds alien, and the nuanced expressions you were never aware of become magnified. You see the familiar big picture of yourself, but you see this more clearly because of the added depth and dimension. One website I am looking at calls the personality description, appropriately, a portrait.
Despite my introverted behavior tonight, I think I fit the ENFJ description to a tee. At first, I thought I was just validating the test because it primed me to think of myself in its frame. I am an ENFJ because, duh, it said I was. But I read the description with a fellow ENFJ and another person who knows me better than almost anyone. They were freaked out by how well it could summarize one person in a few paragraphs. Almost as freaked out as we all were when we did not know the trick to www.peteranswers.com. (Noobs: Type a period, then write the answer.)
Anyway, it does not really make sense for you just to read about my personality - and I feel weird even writing so much about it because we ENFJs tend to focus on others - so what I mean to say is, go take the test! This is the only test you might enjoy taking and will want to take again; there is no right or wrong. It is even more fun to guess other people's personalities before they take the test - see how well you think you know your friends and get to know them more. This is like Never-Have-I-Ever on speed and without the awkward sex questions.
Having some structure to the vast abyss that is your soul can also help for practical things like job interviews and applications. What are your strengths and weaknesses? Well, let me see what my trusty friends Myers and Briggs have to say about that. How do you interact with others and what is your ideal work place? One second, I will just pull up my bookmarked personality page result and have a golden answer for you instantaneously.
So there. Now Bob Saget and Dick Van Dyke have more in common than easily perverted names and television host careers. We three are linked by the bonds of ENFJ, and this is a bond that lasts a lifetime - or at least until pregnancy disrupts hormones and mood swings hang on the front porch of our minds.
Elizabeth's column runs biweekly Wednesdays. She can be reached at e.stonehill@cavalierdaily.com.
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