Well, What's The Story?

Part 1: INFP Team

A rainy October 16th, another Monday, another lecture of differential psychology. The first sentence makes it sound boring as hell, but it's not. It's actually my favourite kind of lessons. I like to dig deeper into what I feel and what it all means. Especially when we've finally reached the topic of different types of personalities; I did as much research in high school as I could about those, and I'm pretty sure it's the most hideous and interesting area of psychology.

As I entered the lecture hall, I climbed up to the 5th row and sat down in my usual place. It was more than 30 minutes until it starts, so I was just looking around, even though there wasn't anything to look at. But my eyes somehow understood that there are sheets put on each table and that there's one on mine too. The headline said "PERSONALITY TYPE TEST". I slowly went through 60 questions with my eyes and thought about what answers I could put there, but the more I was thinking, the less I knew what I really feel about it or even know about myself.

Suddenly I heard the bell and waited for the professor to come. I noticed that the hall is almost full of students and that the rain grew into a real shower.

But there was one thing that made me a little nervous. My table neighbour wasn't here yet.

I don't know him that well yet, and so does he know me. He just always says hello, sits down and listens to every word that leaves the teacher's mouth. Also he always takes the same bus to Sheffield. And he always wears band shirts, such as Oasis or The Strokes. I put on my Red Hot Chili Peppers one today... Yeah, I'd like to say it's not because of him, but I won't lie. I want to finally get to know someone here, because it's unnatural to be so lonely at my age and in such place.

"Good morning, class. You're not going to need your notes today, you'll just need to answer the questions and after the break we'll analyze the answers. You must be completely honest with what you answer because every single point affects what result - what personality type you are. You need not only to mark the scale, but also add your own thoughts to at least 10 questions. When you're done..."

A door shutting noise, wet steps and heavy breathing right beside me happened in two seconds.

"Turner, you're late."

"I'm sorry, professor, the rainfall is pretty crazy right now, I've run all the way here without an umbrella and..." He blushed and stopped because with every word his talking speed was increasing and he probably was too late to understand that the explanation isn't compulsary. There were a few giggles heard around.

"It's alright, Turner, calm down. So, when you're done, count the results in the scale and look at the bottom - you'll find out what type you are.  Take out your pencils and start answering."

She sat behind the table and took a book into her hands. I took my pencil and started writing my name on the sheet when my brain comprehended what the book was. I raised my eyes again and saw that she's reading Harry Potter's fourth book. For real. Cool teacher, I thought to myself.

I wrote my last name and almost started to think of the answer to the first question, when I heard drops falling on the table. I didn't understand where it's from until I've turned to face the table neighbour; he was soaking wet. I quickly reached for a pack of tissues in my pocket which, luckily, was there because I had runny nose. I passed one to him.

"Thank you," he said quietly. "What are we supposed to do with these?"

"Answer the questions. But not only marking in the scale, ten questions should be with your notes." I smiled and turned to my sheet of paper.

This takes a lot of focusing, thinking and fighting with yourself on being completely honest. I don't really like to speak about my biggest fears - such as being afraid to cross a bridge - or that I often have mental breakdowns because I'm a kind of a loner and it makes me feel bad. But oh well. The only thing I liked answering was about a secret hobby. I wrote that I'm playing guitar and listening to rock music. It wouldn't be such a secret if I had anyone to talk to besides my family. And I don't have a roommate in my dorm too, because there aren't that much students here. This is scary, I'm such a loser. 

The hour went by really quick and made my brain almost explode, but, in general, it was awesome. The break is like fifteen minutes, so I took out my notebook and started painting spiderwebs. What does that mean? I really hope psychology makes it clear to me one day...

Usually most of the students go to take a walk or something on the break, but since today it's pouring with rain outside, everyone's talking between each other.

"Hey, thanks again," he said.

"No problem. I hope the tissue saves you from a runny nose, because the pack I have in my pocket didn't help me."

My lame jokes are always so stupid, but I can't control them, so I'll just let it be... My seatmate giggled artificially anyway.

"You don't need to laugh, I know my jokes are lame," I said and now we both laughed.

"So, you're a fan of Red Hot Chili Peppers?"

"Yeah, I am!" I blushed because: 1) he noticed, 2) I said it too enthusiastically. "I saw you're into Oasis?"

"I like them, but my favourite band is The Strokes." He said. I nodded. There was a moment of silence. "What's your name?"

"I'm Lilly, and you?"

"I'm Alex Turner." He smiled and raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, right... I'm Geller. Lilly Geller."

"Hey, like Monica Geller from "FRIENDS"!"

"Are you serious, you're watching that thing too?"

"Of course, it's the best sitcom to ever exist."

I laughed.

"Which personality type did you count?" He asked.

"I'm an INFP." Alex put his hand on his forehead and then stroked his wet hair. "Really? An INFP too?"

"Yeah... INFP team!" He gave me a high five. "Well, the description under it didn't say as much as I'd like to  know about it."

"It's really narrow," I agreed. "But I've read like all of the psychology books in my school library, so I remember a few things about it. I know that there are 4.3% of such people in the world, that they're mostly connected with arts in some way and that River Phoenix is considered to be an INFP."

"We're an endangered species," he laughed. "Are you friends with art?"

"Well, I play guitar and piano. Also, I sometimes like to draw... But I can confirm that I'm a lot better in music. What about you?"

"I actually have this kind of a band-thing starting with my high school friends. I play guitar, piano too, I also TRY to write lyrics. My main studies are music technology and media, I only took English and psychology as my side ones."

"Do you have a demo up? Or maybe you're playing some gigs around?"

"Oh, not yet... We don't have an actual song now. We just try to jam and do covers, but nothing else yet. I'm not really confident to show lyrics to the guys."

"I'd say that you should show them to your bandmates, but I won't say that, because I'm an INFP too and I understand that it's anti-motivation. Although I would really like to hear what you're jamming."

"Well, we only meet at weekends, because we're taking different colleges. And we meet in Sheffield, that's my hometown and the other guys live there too. So I don't know if it's possible to hear what we do since we don't have any records..."

"Well, I live in Sheffield too, so I have to agree it's really difficult, nearly impossible." This was the first normal joke I ever made. Applause.

"Are you serious?"Alex widened his eyes. "Well, I invite you to our practice this Friday or Saturday, whenever you can."

"That would be really fun, thanks, Alex..."

And then the bell rang again.