How were you as a child vs now?

[Jo Lande]

I've been thinking about the development of personality while growing up, whether it is inborn or changeable. How outside factors develop introversion or extroversion. Can't remember where, though someone posted a study that showed an ESE personality, for example, is more likely to develop when around siblings, or something to that effect. So my question is: How were you when you were younger, how has your background molded you into the person you are now or how different you would have been under different circumstances (With or without siblings or parents)?

For my background, I grew up an only child in a strict but loving home. I often visited family, but being the youngest niece, most of my cousins were teenagers, so I didn't know any kids my age before my school years. From ages 3 to 5, I was always remarked as being very energetic, curious and absent-minded. If someone wasn't around to watch me, I would wander off. I wasn't one to get my hands dirty, though I did love tinkering with toys. Despite this, my aunts and uncles always considered me friendly and polite for a child. Always full of smiles and laughter.

I stayed the same in school, though my habits caused me a lot of trouble. I would wander into places I didn't belong and cause a mess or throw a tantrum if someone touched me, like when I got a checkup at the nurse's office. People thought I was abused or autistic, which was far from the truth, but that didn't stop me from being treated like a special needs child in class. As an adult, I've become more taciturn and unfriendly, though inside I'm still the silly klutz who gets lost on the way to the shop.

Sometimes I wonder if my father were still alive, maybe I would've been different. He died when I was a baby, but the stories I hear about him always interest me. How he was the type of man who could party and chat up anyone in the room, yet he would sometimes withdraw and brood for hours on end before returning to his jolly, adventurous self. I suspect he might've been an IEE.

If he were still alive, might I have been different? Maybe his extroversion would've rubbed off on me and I became an ILE or even an IEE like him. Maybe I would've stayed the same and we would've had some weird child supervisor/adult supervisee relationship? Who knows, but it's interesting to speculate on what could've been.

Anyway, what are your thoughts and experiences?