Quote Originally Posted by thehotelambush View Post
I was brighter emotionally and had less of a filter. And was more energetic as kids tend to be.

For the most part though I had the same tendencies; I've just learned a lot since then about how to deal with the world.
Pretty similar with me, until I was about 6 or so. I didn't have the best family and began to distance myself from them at this age; it also coincided with beginning school, which I resented going to. I've always hated the feeling of being forced to spend my time in some way against my will. If I had it my way I would have spent all my time reading and studying insects (or larger animals, if I could find them).

I think at this age I quickly developed a filter (though I had trouble maintaining it well into my adolescence -- now it's difficult to speak at all without a filter. Go figure) and became quite withdrawn. I began to think about how I related to people and understood the world, and realized I didn't understand either at all, which bothered me. I often tended to avoid both. I did have friends, though; mostly Alphas (Socionics' predictive power is sometimes unnerving) -- my two best friends were ILE and SEI.

I was 10-13 I moved a bit, and when we settled, I got less interaction outside my family, and most of the people I did interact with were evangelical fundamentalists. I became even more withdrawn, though I'd occasionally flash outside. I was born into evangelicalism and only became a heretic at 14 or 15, but by this point I was very annoyed by the evangelicals I was interacting with and the anti-intellectual strain in the community (which is enormous -- it's difficult to properly convey this to someone who hasn't spent a great deal of time around such people). I'd occasionally spend my time arguing with adults to amuse myself, since people were generally open to engaging kids. Or I'd sometimes tell fantastic stories and see how much I could convince them to swallow. It gave me kicks to watch people realize when they talked to me that their conception of reality was growing more absurd; I really was prideful of my ability to argue any point or to construct believable absurdities. I began to be interested in girls and would occasionally try to make moves, though I wasn't ever successful. I could be more or less charismatic and witty when I wanted to be (usually for a girl), but for the most part I fell into long spells of depression.

Now I think I have a better understanding of people and how to live. I'm more social, though I don't have any friends. I'm also more easily annoyed and less idealistic.