Melancholy Baby

"It is said that Julius Caesar was able to dictate different letters to several secretaries at the same time without losing the line of thought for each dictation." ~ a tidbit from The Choleric personality, http://fisheaters.com/quizc.html

I recently discovered that I am a Melancholic. Or of melancholic temperament. Yet, somewhere along the line I adopted a Sanguine-esque personality (extroverted) in response to the painful shyness of my melancholic youth.

I will spare you the details, but each time my counselor/therapist referred to me or my reactions or behaviors as melancholic, I ignored him.  I simply could not relate. Melancholy? Me? Nah.

Months later, I finally googled melancholic personality. And damn. I am that. I was flabbergasted. No Way!

But way. I knew it even as I read the words. Not a hundred percent, mind you. But close enough. Turns out being a melancholic ain't so bad. Especially since I'm over the shy part. Of course, I'm still getting used to the idea that in certain aspects I'm not who I thought I was.

But what felt, in the beginning, like my 'dark side', feels quite comfortable to me now. I'm growing accustomed to it. And Ms. Sanguine? She's earned an indefinite vacation traveling the world.

Are you a bit curious as to which of the four temperaments you (or one of the characters in your novel) might be? Check out FishEaters.com.

~ Olivia J. Herrell

And for all of you melancholy babies out there (and especially my sweet JP), here's Connie Francis, circa 1958, singing Melancholy Baby.