Blog Post #11

I am funny, easy-going, bubbly, outgoing, hard-working person. I love to making people laugh and meeting new people. I enjoy working hard on projects for school and extracurricular activities but I almost always go with the flow and live life. I consider all of these traits to be positive because they’re the traits that have allowed me to make so many friends and be successful in school and FBLA. Being able to go with the flow just helps in general, especially when things don’t necessarily go they I want them to. I also have an analytical personality. I tend to think about things more than most - sometimes things will bother me for a long time before I say they do. This can be good and bad, but most of the time it’s just really annoying. I’m also stubborn. Once I start something I refuse to finish it, no matter how difficult the task, or how much stress it causes me. If I disagree with something – you’ll know it. And if I don’t want to do something, I probably won’t do it unless I have no other choice.
On a scale of 1-10, I would have to say my optimism level is a 7 or 8. I always try to keep a positive attitude about everything and always hope for the best. I think being optimistic is a really good thing. If you’re really pessimistic you may not be willing to try new things because you’re afraid that things won’t turn out well. On the other hand, being too optimistic can cause more disappointment and let-downs when things go bad. Personally, being optimistic plays a big part in my life. Always believing in the best gave me confidence to run for a state office in FBLA when I was a sophomore. I was scared to death to speak in front of 2,000 people but I knew that no matter what I would benefit from doing it. I definitely wouldn’t have made it to being the state president if I didn’t think so optimistically two years ago. Another role optimism plays in my life is more personal. My dad has had a lot of health problems my entire life and was diagnosed with cancer right before school started. It would be easy to be pessimistic, quit hoping that things will get better and I wouldn’t be as disappointed when things get worse, but being pessimistic doesn’t help him feel any better. By having a positive, optimistic outlook, my family has been able to keep going through all of it. Believing that it can get better makes it easier to deal with.
In different situations, I would have to say that my personality is a little bit different. Or at least, I choose to show different sides of my personality in different situations. When I’m spending time with my friends, I tend to say whatever’s on my mind and tell lots of jokes and use sarcasm because I’m comfortable with them. I hardly ever shut up, actually. When I’m talking with someone I’ve just met I can be a little more shy and tone down my personality because situations like that seem to be more awkward. Also, my personality during class or doing homework can be different from my personality when I’m in class or working. In class, I tend to be less talkative and more serious and focused on schoolwork. After class, I like to have fun and be a little more laid-back. Just because I don’t act the same in every situation, I still have the same personality. It’s important to adapt our personalities because there are certain times when it’s appropriate to show different sides of our personality.
Three defense mechanisms that I use are repression, denial, and displacement. Repression is basically forgetting thoughts, memories, or feelings that are unpleasant or threatening. Denial is refusing to recognize information or events that cause anxiety or stress. Right now, I’m kind of going through repression and denial because I have to write a farewell letter for the FBLA members. I keep forgetting that it’s due soon – my teacher and my parents have to keep reminding me to do it. I think I’m forgetting to do it because a large part of me doesn’t want to say goodbye to all of the friends that I’ve been working with for the past four years. I also feel like the final conference in April is still a long way off and that I still have plenty of time, when in actuality I have very little time to get everything finished. On a different note, displacement is expressing aggression on socially acceptable outlets. Whenever I get really angry and I just want to scream, rather than screaming out loud in front of everyone I scream into a pillow because it’s a little less crazy. If I ever want to hit something, I have a punching bag that I hit instead of hitting a person. It’s a much better way to handle anger.