Explaining My Type A Personality

Explaining my personality can be a difficult task, but I must complete the assignment so here goes nothing. My initial statement is a clear reference to the fact that I have a Type A personality, and I have known this long before reading about it in the text or the online test I filled out before starting this writing. My internal drive to complete anything and everything that is asked of me, as well as the tasks I take on to lessen the burden of others, are almost the textbook definition of a Type A personality. The satisfaction of completion and the aroma one smells from the hearing the phrase “good job” or “attaboy” are so sweet that they may lead to an early death.

Growing up, I was the quiet kid that didn’t cause any problems. Well,

Nine glorious (ha ha!) years later, I separated from the Corps with an honorable discharge. I won’t go into details for obvious reasons, but my time in the service really brought out the Type A behavior inside of me. It was easy and expected of each and every Marine that served. I don’t want to say they brainwashed us, because they didn’t. Instead we were given opportunities to grow and be the best. We were expected to give everything we could at all times, thus allowing the Marine Corps to capitalize on our ability to take charge, complete the task at hand, and come home safely. We had a routine, a schedule, and we had to live by it. Throughout that schedule, they wanted “hard chargers”. The text uses the term “hard driving, achievement oriented, and highly competitive” (pg. 45), and that’s exactly what a hard charger is. I blossomed. At every opportunity, I was the first one to volunteer, as doing so helped to look good for promotion. Every promotion meant a bigger paycheck. Who doesn’t love extra money? But aside from the money, the added responsibilities that came with promotion swelled inside of me. I loved the challenge of making things that shouldn’t work out, do exactly that. I enjoyed the kudos that came along with the accomplishments. I’ve been out of the Marines for just shy of ten years now, and I still strive for that same

I still deal with stress, but since I’ve been married to my gorgeous wife, I have found ways to deal with it. Before Alishia, I kept things bottled up inside. Not having enough money to pay a bill, or a bad day at work or just not in a good mood are things I used to keep to myself. One day it got bad and I lost it. I couldn’t control the emotion I had growing inside of me and it exposed itself to the world. She explained to me that I needed to be able to talk to her, to confide in her (I mean come on, she’s my bestest bestest friend in the world) but my pride just couldn’t be swallowed. I refused to be defeated (another Type A trait). But it got me to thinking and if I couldn’t trust her to listen to me and help me to figure things out, what was the point of her being in my life? She is my person, (Grey’s Anatomy reference and yes I still watch it) and I need her there when I can’t do it myself. Over the years I’ve learned to be more open about the successes, and failures (which are almost too numerous to count), with her. Doing this doesn’t change the circumstances of what I am experiencing, but it does help to relieve the stresses I deal