A few months ago, I stumbled upon an online Myer Briggs Personality test while I was attempting to distract myself from the painfully boring meeting that I was attending. The presenter spoke of policies, procedures and of topics so mundane that I internally questioned if it were even ethical to make people sit through this. “What are the psychological implications of being forced to endure hours of lecture so devoid of life and inspiration that it makes you want to crawl out of your skin?” I wondered. Unfortunately, this is an ongoing battle that life and I have.
I felt my restlessness growing and just as it started to become physically painful, I drifted off into my own world where I could go wherever I wanted. The dull words faded into nothingness and I was no longer trapped in the purgatory of that colorless room.
This is how I survive. This is where my freedom lies.
Oh btw, I’m INFP.
I begin to ponder what the world would be like if INFP’s had an island all to themselves. Policy and procedure meetings would be extinct, that’s for damn sure. Actually, now that I think about it, “Policy and procedure” in general would most likely cease to exist and a peaceful shit show of chaos and disorder would immediately ensue. So many things would get started, but nothing would get done.
INFP Island Slogan:
The Final Liberation from the Great Suffocation
OPT out of the game of life!
No more meetings, small talk, or business casual!
Bring your pets!
Live life by your own values!
Freedom awaits you!
and remember, the more pets the merrier!
Ok, ok, I’m done. I wouldn’t want to live on that island anyway. And no more Myer Briggs talk, I promise.
The truth is that the real world exists whether we like it or not. So we can either live in the woods like Ted Kazynski, or we can join in on the game of life. The majority choose the latter. What the majority don’t realize, is that although we must play the game of life, that doesn’t mean we have to play by the rules.
I’m not saying to become an anarchist and protest against any form of law or structure. But we have to remember that….
We don’t have to conform. We don’t have to participate in the cultural obsession of consuming. We don’t have to eat meat just because it’s the societal norm. We don’t have to drink in college just because everyone else does. We don’t have to blindly respect authority. We don’t have to live life based on the values that have been thrust upon us by society, our peers or our parents.
What we need to do is strive to be authentic, vulnerable, and brave in this terrifyingly fake world.
More to come 🙂
xo
-Alba