As I get older, I find that my ability to deal with certain personality types is rapidly waning. Obviously, as you go through life, you’re going to encounter people and personalities that directly counter your own. That’s nothing unexpected, and honestly, that’s pretty much how humans are designed. However, there’s certain personality types that may not really be seen as counters to your own, or anyone’s for that matter. Those people just seem to set off everyone.

For instance, you have the Combative type. These people would use their last gasp of oxygen in this world to argue with you about something. They could say the sky is blue, and you agree, “Yes! The sky is blue.” and they would then turn around and be like, “Actually, the sky is not blue. It’s grey and depressing.” Needless discourse. If someone states something, they will always push back, and then morph their opinion on the subject with every new bit of input, so that they’re always in either a subtle or directly opposed stance to the topic at hand. It’s exhausting. My daughter is this way and I’m desperately trying to break her of this.

Then you have the Liar type. These people will lie about literally anything, for literally no reason at all. They have to lie. It’s a compulsion, for many. And they always get caught up in it. I don’t know if it’s the rush of trying not to get caught in the lie, or if they’re really just that foolish. Either way, I don’t have time for this. If you want to lie about everything under the sun, that’s fine, but take it somewhere else.

Up next, you have the Boasting type. These people have accomplished everything, probably before you, and they did it better than you if you happened to do it first. Oh. My. Goodness. These people are exhausting. Life is not a series of competitions with your fellow human beings. We don’t need to know how much better you are than us. We don’t know need to know how much cooler you are than us. Being “first” for everything is not always a blessing, because you’ll always be the first to experience the negative, too. Besides, I’ll play Super Mario if I’m feeling a lack of 1-up experiences in my life.

Coming up near the end, quite fittingly, is the Lazy type. These people are simply too lazy. Too lazy for what, you ask? Literally anything. Intelligent conversation? Nope, too much effort. Empathy? No way, that takes thought! Friendship? That takes maintenance and that just can’t be done. I honestly don’t know how these people get through life, but of the time, they’re riding on the coattails of someone who is busting their ass and giving a damn.

And lastly, you have the Passive type. These people can’t do anything for themselves. If there is conflict, these people will panic, bolt, and let someone else decide how they feel. This is not to be confused with diplomatic, the ones who will hear both sides and make an educated choice. No, passives don’t want anything to do with anything. If they’ve done something wrong, they will not own up to it. If someone else has done something wrong and they witnessed it, they will not call them out. They’d watch a bank robbery go down and probably not do a thing about it. They just exist. The distinction between the Lazy type and the Passive type is literally effort. Lazy makes none, Passive will bend over backward and tie themselves in knots, just to get out of having to react to/express themselves.

Now, obviously these are not the main personality types that exist. These are those sneaky, secondary personality types that help mold you into the person you are. These are also just the negatives that I personally have issues with.. there are absolutely positive sub-types that exist that I don’t have a beef with in this particular rant. In that same vein, we all have some semblance of these personality types within us, to a degree. Sometimes they come and go, sometimes they show themselves a lot stronger (maybe when you’re having a bad day or under extreme conflict/stress). The key is how you deal with them. How you keep them under control. How you react to them happening within yourself.

Some people, many really, suffer from multiple at the same time. These people, the ones who are constantly displaying those negative, draining personality types, are the ones that I can’t manage. Lazy, combative liars are just the worst people. They’ll spout what they feel, spout their beliefs, but then they’ll walk away. They’re only combative long enough to get in their opinion, and then they’re gone. They’re not Passive, because I don’t think they fear the confrontation. They’re Lazy, because they just don’t care.

More and more, especially because of the past year and quarantine, there’s been a boom of these people. These multi-negatives, who are loud, bored, and so entitled. Probably, back when I was younger, I’d go toe-to-toe with them and call them out on their bullshit. But these days, I’m too tired to put forth the energy to draw them back into their own fights. I’ve always been more on the Passive side of confrontation, but these days, I’m just strapped for time and energy, so I have a mixture of Lazy and just .. tired.

Either way, that brings me back to my initial statement of feeling like I’m less able to deal with these people and their personalities than I was before.

I’m just tired.