What were you like as a kid?

[Mathnerdkid]

I am wondering what people here were like as children/ teens. Forgive me if this has been done before, as I did a search before I posted.

[Harmony]

As a child I had this forlorn look if I was alone, but with others I was center of attention. My mom has this picture of me just lounging in my swim suit on a chaise lounge by our pool... And I'm just kind of staring off into space. Being an only child I always did things on my own. I even played Monopoly on my own if my parents were gone. =P But if you put me in a group, I turned into the leader. =P

I think I've always bounced back and forth between I and E my whole life. It depended on what was going on in my life. In high school I was almost always an E. I was very active in sports and band. After games me and my friends all went out afterwards to Steak N Shake. I was a socialite, I was the one that decided where we were all going. Though, I think that was mostly because I was the one with the car. =P

I was always very quiet about my feelings though. I never really talked about what was bothering me or what had me so happy. I was my friend's therapist. Anytime they had problems they'd come to me because they knew I would let them get through their entire story before giving any input. I was smart, but lazy. I probably could have had straight As instead of a mixture of As and Bs, had I actually buckled down and studied. I could tell when I was a severe E... I'd get marks for talking excessively. =P I was never single in high school, I almost always had a boyfriend or was talking to someone. I actually kind of miss high school.

[Sliderule]

I haven't really changed all that much since I've grown up. The only real difference between now and then is I manage to do fewer impulsive things, this is easily accounted for though. Aside from that I still get along better with people older than my peers, I'm still very prone to pushing every button on every gadget I can get my hands on, and I still get excited when I find a prize in my cereal. My skills interacting with women have hardly advanced beyond those of adolescence so that part of life has remained very much the same. Some things don't work like they did back then; now if I chuck a rubber ball at a girl it's considered assault whereas in used to be considered, "Hey I think you're really cute.". I personally would be smitten at that point, the good news is I'm off of probation soon.

[SRVcardsfan27]

My temper was about the same as it is today. Calm, reserved, and laid-back. I was for the most part well-mannered, and didn't want to cause trouble. I think my personality was about the same, as I have always been naturally against the norm forever, but there were some times I had orthodox thoughts on certain subjects. When I got into my teen years, that's when my thinking really took over and redefined me. I think I always had the IN and the J, but was probably more of an F in my early youth.... although it wasn't a lopsided F. I was always pretty different, and I always knew it.

[Mozzes]

I was the the underachieving sarcastic wise-cracking smartass who spent more time reading sci-fi/fantasy novels than listening to teachers and who had a flair for the heroic.

I guess the more things change the more they stay the same...

[Deadgod]

Too pre-occupied with whatever video games I had. My parents took them away because I failed to perform in school. I resented them. The cycle starts over again. Until there were teachers who believed in me and my ability then I worked hard at pleasing them and exceling. I would get my games back and things would be good for a while. During play time and recess, I was by myself with one or two friends and we pretended we were video game characters. I can't tell you the countless times I thought I was holding a gun and it was just a curved stick. I was a really picky eater. I thought cheese was disgusting.

I didn't like family coming over because that meant other kids would come...and they would want to play MY video games :irked:. I would reluctantly let them play but they would always screw up and I would fight with them because they would screw up. I like competence in everything and it really irks me if people aren't.

During my pre-teen years, I started picking up music becoming the most oustanding musician for the three years I was in middle school and went on to an Arts magnet school. I was also picking up drums as a hobby and didn't like how the percussionists in school were lacking in musicality and technique. People disliked that in me; that I would throw their incompetence in their face. But people liked my extreme passion for things.

That's it for now. It seems like today is the day for me to reflect on the past. I did two posts concerning the past.

[rara avis]

Very much the same as I am now, but more interactive, more aggressive.

More uninhibitedly, naturally eccentric... more at the mercy of others, and more confused.

[Maayan]

Very different than who I am today, in certain respects. Very similar in others. I've always loved being the center of attention; I've always been a chatterbox; I've always been sensitive and quick to burst into tears. However...

I disliked people a lot more. I wasn't social at all. When I was little, I liked to be alone. I only liked being around others if I could learn from them, or if I could use them as an audience (I've always liked showing off and impressing people). Point being, I didn't like social interactions for the sake of connecting with others. What was the point? I didn't enjoy the company of my classmates, for example, and if ever we did hang out and I did something that was outside the social norm, they would ostracize me for weeks. I didn't see the point in having fair-weathered friends. I vastly preferred being alone, drawing and making up stories inside my head.

I thought that shopping was an extraordinary waste of time. Our parents would drive my friend and I to the mall (this was probably Grade 3-6), give us $20 each, and let us run loose for a few hours. She'd go to a clothing boutique; after about five minutes, I'd get bored, and go down to an electronics store while she finished up.

School came very easily to me. I took it for granted that I was clever, and never really actively "tried" to do well. I remember I got a 92 on a paper once, and I was ashamed of my mark, because it was the worst I'd ever done. I was annoyed with other people for being slow. I still hated tests, though, as I do today. Tests have always made me feel unpleasantly pressured to perform.

[Valour]

I used to spend a lot of time showing off and chattering to people's parents!

[Lagawrd]

Good question. I find myself wondering about my friends, and people around me, how they were when they were younger.

I was the the underachieving sarcastic wise-cracking smartass who spent more time reading sci-fi/fantasy novels than listening to teachers and who had a flair for the heroic.

I had friend in my fifth grade class that did exactly that. In class, he would read 'Goosebumps' throughout the whole day and would never pay attention to the teacher.

As a child (around the age of 5-12) I was very observant and a polite critic at heart. I did not do very well in school, and saw it as a nuisance like others my age did. I was an all around, nice, pure, and innocent kid.

[alphawolf]

I am wondering what people here were like as children/ teens. Forgive me if this has been done before, as I did a search before I posted.

I rarely paid attention in class, studied, or did my homework. I rarely received a score of less than 100% on school exams.

I read 5-10 books a week (200-300 pages).

I always preferred one very good friend over groups of friends.

And if there was any trouble going on, I was usually right at the center of it. I once set off a small tear-gas cannister in a popular cafe near my school, just to clear everybody out so I could get a seat and eat lunch.

[BostonIan]

As a young kid, I was a momma's boy, artistic, athletic, over-talented in school. A bully, I would always lose my temper and get into fights, but I wasn't particularly good at fighting, I'd just make angry purse-lipped faces and wrestle. I had four or five best friends and three or four different social circles I hung out in.

As a teen, I got angry, cut off all my friends, stopped talking for almost two years, and stopped caring about anything. I was still naturally good at everything, just couldn't put in the effort to show up every day or hone talents. I was a football player, from the "bad"/cool part of the city, so somehow this all didn't manage to make me a social outcast. I still hung out with the cool kids and went to parties.

To this day, it's hard to know whether I'm an I or an out-of-practice E who just doesn't connect with regular people.

[LvHmBirth]

I was just shorter.

[Lucid]

Luna, the really weird blond girl from the last Harry Potter movie. I haven't read any of the books, I'm not a Harry Potter fan and I don't want to talk about Harry Potter.

But I was struck at how similar to that girl I was when I was a kid. Everyone thought I was weird, I didn't fit in anywhere, I walked around barefoot in the woods, I was introspective, eccentric, spacey and quiet. Oh, and I had long white-blond hair.

[Mozzes]

Luna, the really weird blond girl from the last Harry Potter movie. I haven't read any of the books, I'm not a Harry Potter fan and I don't want to talk about Harry Potter.

But I was struck at how similar to that girl I was when I was a kid. Everyone thought I was weird, I didn't fit in anywhere, I walked around barefoot in the woods, I was introspective, eccentric, spacey and quiet. Oh, and I had long white-blond hair.

So I guess you don't want to read my Harry Potter fanfic?

[Josephine1012]

I think I felt that I was weird, more so than anyone else actually thought so, but it's hard to tell at this point. I was always in my head, thinking about something weird and trying to build chains of events that led to a specific occurrence. I was like that with most things that happened to me.

It's important to note that my mom had me rather late, she was 37 and she is INXJ, I always go back and forth on the third letter with her. From very early on in my upbringing she used sarcasm (we're talking when I was 2 or 3!). I used to cry all the time about that with words: "Mooooom, stop joking!" Nevertheless, she never treated me like a kid and always as her own peer. I used to get really puzzled when she got upset with me.

I always wanted to be social (I think), but I could never quite figure out how. I couldn't think of anything to say that would interest others, so instead I ended up having very athletic friends because we constantly tried to do something very dare devilish (Amazing number of near death experiences, considering I had a pretty overprotective mother) and didn't talk much.

The observer (voyeur as people who know me better would refer to it) in me, figured out a lot about people eventually, so the older I got the easier it was to play the social game. I still hate it but for different reasons, it seems too easy and the "rules" are pretty boring. One thing hasn't changed, I constantly get myself into trouble with others because I seek out new and "interesting" people. When most people seem boring or tried and tested so to speak "interesting" a lot of times means "dangerous".

[secretagentm]

As a child I was very very shy. My mom tells me I was initially an outgoing toddler because she plopped me down in an American pre-school when I could only speak Korean, and I told her I had no problems making friends.

I think in elementary school I started noticing that I was the only Asian kid in my class, and people would tease me about my name (and it's not even that weird), so that's when I became shy. My 2nd grade class had to recite a poem in front of our parents (public speaking, ahhhhh) and during rehearsal my teacher gave me a candy when I finally spoke loud enough for people to hear.

Complete, total tomboy. Hated pink, hated dresses, hated those stupid frilly ankle socks my mom would make me wear on Sundays. The girls at my new middle school were quick to pick on me, like the vultures they were. Well, I got the last laugh.

[brainysmurf]

As a child my parents tried to distract me when I was upset and that so didn't work with me. I would always tell them to stop trying to manipulate me.

[Outdoorwhale]

Incredibly destructive....but non-violent unless they started putting their hands on me then gloves were off.

I was always breaking things, ripping things apart, fighting geese, building reverse traps, sabotaging store displays...pretty much rebellion just for the fun of it. Still do most except the geese fighting since they play for keeps.

Hated school and wanted to be left alone......still do in college. Never went to dances, parties or social things nor really had any friends, my standing with people never changed.

[LaoTzu]

Let's just say I once had a counselor at a church camp say to me...'why don't you just @%# off kid!'...

I just wanted to discuss some of the contradictions in the bible.... sheesh....

[Samoan Corleone]

Either I was quiet or I "talked too much". I never really understood it then but now I see I could go on for hours in a conversation if the topic was something I really found interesting, but otherwise I'd be pretty unresponsive. I think that most introverts naturally become actors as they grow up, to act like they're interested in what someone's saying when they'd rather be on their own staring out the window or something.





Samoan Corleone added to this post, 1 minutes and 35 seconds later...

That's another thing, my teachers would always tell me that I "starred into space" a lot. As I got older I learnt to only do that when I was on my own lol.

[Zilal]

I was really dorky, very silly and creative, but very shy around people I didn't know well. Daydreamed a lot.

[TwinStar]

Extremely quiet and nearly always in my room (alone) or outside (alone). Would throw a fit if Mom requested I have a play-date. I could literally sit in my room with my stuffed animals (never dolls) for entire days at a time making up story lines for them. Always very shy and uncomfortable around adults, including my parents, and I pretty much hated other children (how could they be so immature!?). Oh, and I loved to read. And I mean, loved. From pre-school through middle school, I got made fun of for being smart, so I dumbed down starting around 8th grade. Finally, around 11th grade in high school, I realized I much preferred my old, smart self that liked reading books and thinking. And now I'm happy for the first time in over a decade, so it all worked out quite nicely IMO.

[probity]

I was very similar to how I am now though before the age of six I was outgoing (though still very introverted) and aggressive. After that and into my later teens I was very quiet, timid, and passive aggressive.

I always loved to read and learn. If there wasn't something of educational value I usually wasn't interested. I was always making up games for myself to play and was reluctant to let other kids play with me because they always messed up my plot lines with their input. I was the youngest in my 'social circle' as a toddler and the second youngest was horribly jealous of me for 'taking her place' and I think it gave me a bit of a superiority complex that lasted through middle school. I reasoned that if she thought I was somehow better than her than there must be some validity to it because I'd never put someone ahead of myself unless they really deserved it.

I was the kid that was bullied one day and the next had the same bullies crying on my shoulder because their parents were homicidal drug addicts who flipped the car on them over the weekend. I was much more intuitive when I was young and I think it made me seem a lot more tuned into the feelings of others than I actually was, I was just really good at reading people. Because I was bullied I became pretty scrappy and a tomboy. Befriending the bullies seemed like my best option and when they learned I could beat up 6 of the boys all at once and got them suspended in the process they started respecting (or fearing?) me and eventually accepted me as one of their own.

I always had on off relationships with girls. Sometimes they liked me, sometimes they didn't, and I found them generally too stupid to hold my interest for long. I was a great people watcher and whenever I decided I was bored enough to interact is was usually to subtly stir up some mischief.

[Chisos]

Shy. Tall for my age. Thin. Cried when upset, even sometimes up into high school. Asthmatic (yep. Had a "puffer"). Wore glasses (the black horn-rimmed, with the strap around the back of the head, and occassionally a piece of duct tape holding the bridge together--yep, I swear, believe it or not--just like Revenge of the Nerds).

Read voraciously from a very young age. Grew up on a ranch 20 miles from everywhere. Learned to do all sorts of stuff--figure things out, fix things. Ride a horse, work cattle and sheep, drive a tractor and grow wheat, oats, hay, etc. Was self confident and yet still insecure--in large part because I was so different from everyone else.

Hung out at the public library when I was in town.

Played sports--first football, then in high school, tennis.

Also in choir, school newspaper, etc. Showed sheep in 4H and won top ribbons.

Very active in a great Boy Scout Troop that was all about backpacking, camping, etc. Eagle Scout.

Loved rock and roll music, had a subscription to Rolling Stone in high school (both of which freaked out my parents a bit).

Really good grades, and was self consious about beeing "too good," which led me to join up with some kids that had "mild" bad reputations. It was a group I was comfortable with. I was not one of the "in kid," but was sort of on the fringe on the "in kid" group.

I always got along much better with adults than "outside my group" peers.

My family was very quiet, traditional, simple, hard working, educated--and stressed education. And instilled good values.

After high school (20,000 population city, 220 person class), I could not wait to "Get Out of Dodge" and go to UT Austin. Now, boy, do I appreciate that "underprivililged" (working all the time on the ranch, while my friends were in town having fun), "controlling" (now, I see it as healthy structure--myfolks were pretty strict), environment.

It took me until about 5 years ago to realize the value of how I grew up, and fully appreciate it, and my parents.

My Momma still tells me that she just could never figure me out as a kid. But she always knew I could do anything I set my mind to do.

I'm now 50.

[ToC]

Ever seen Dexter?

[Mozzes]

Ever seen Dexter?

Yes, I do imagine many of us were like him growing up.

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[ToC]

Wrong Dexter ^^

[Liquid]

Never took school seriously. Never studied, or paid attention in most classes but somehow managed an 80 average, which I was and still am fine with. There were only a select few teachers which stand out in my mind who motivated me to do put effort into my work.

I have the same three friends since the beginning of elementary school. These friends of mine share the similar outlandish sense of humour, which is more or less extreme sarcasm to the point where no one can tell if we are sarcastic or not. Everyone else is mostly an acquaintance.

I've had one girlfriend a long time ago, she came to me and left. Never really tried to get a new one, but I'm trying now and don't know where to start.

[Shinqui]

Not much different than I am now I guess.

I was exceptionaly self assured. One morning I missed the school bus for kindergarden, so I walked the couple miles to school down the side of a couple major roads and a highway. It just didn't occur to me that perhaps I should go tell my parents I needed a ride and I never understood why everyone became so upset about the whole thing.

No understanding whatsover of people and social skills. I guess this has changed a bit over time, but I still practice an exceptional amount of avoidance behaviour.

No qualms with telling adults that they were wrong about things, I'm sure that was endearing.

A voracious reader, for life.

One thing that did change was a fascination with money as a child. I was always coming up with ways to make a buck, nothing involving hard work mind you, just inventiveness. These days I care very little for money.