I was recently forced to take the Myers-Briggs personality test
And I ended up taking it three times just to make sure that I could trust it.
Against everything that I previously believed about myself, it told me that I was extraverted (an ENFJ-A, to be precise, all three times).
My initial, incredulous response was, as usual, a joke: "Protagonist? Ay! Main character energy!" And as someone who often does not like to be the center of attention, I kept reading hoping that there could be enough flaws in the description for me to deny the results.
Yet, as I read the description, I thought "OH! That is me!" And it felt weird to be seen by a test that I could never know me. Maybe it is the creeps that have lingered in my bones about technology knowing me for some time now. A test could ask me questions about my behaviors, preferences, and how I like to fill my mind, and BOOM! It pronounces, "TA-DA!!!" Or maybe it's more of the internet sassiness of, "This you???" when it confronts you with you.
So, I started digging for old bios that I've written about myself for different profiles, jobs, and introductions, trying to pull evidence about myself for myself. How would I see me if I wasn't me, but was someone who was reading about me?
The results follow:
My bio for the longest time (like 2006-??? I think I consumed too much TED...lol)
A dynamic and progressive individual with a desire for innovation in the way people think, teach, and learn.
~2017-2020??? (the most boring)
Nichole Vaughan currently teaches English 2 in the HCA and IBY2 Language and Literature in her seventh year of teaching. Upon graduation from CSU, Chico, Nichole started her teaching career at Terra Nova High School in Pacifica. She spent three years there before coming to Sequoia High School in 2013, and she joined the Health Careers Academy in 2014.
She loves the outdoors, her dog, and reading (of course) and is also an avid practitioner of yoga.
Summer 2020
All my homies don't like capitalism.
We all want to be Omar, but if I'm being real, I'm more of a McNulty (more of the pushy altruism than the self-destructive) mixed with Prezbo and a dash of Dukie.
And if you don't pick up what I'm putting down, then we probably aren't friends.
Summer 2021
Education, language, and all things expression pop the batteries in my back and get me going. I am a teacher (11 years) and a learner (lifetime) always trying to: document my thinking, see and explain my connections, and share all the results (good and bad) of following my curiosity. Life is art, and inspiration is everywhere.
Summer 2022 (I live by "work hard, play hard" and am not sure if it is me or it was Chico's doing)
Education, language, and all things expression pop the batteries in my back and get me going. I am a teacher (12 years) and a learner (lifetime). Small town raised (Oroville), CSU made (Chico!), and intellectually developed every day in and out of the classroom.
Summer 2023
Curious, observant, and I always have a bunch of jokes in my head that stay in my head because I overthink them and do not say them aloud. Maybe you’ll hear one if I get comfortable enough.
Living to nail down some answers because I usually only have questions in my attempt to find those dang answers. I want to write more. I want to read more. And I want to learn from others, always, always, always...
Fall 2023 (I think this one is my favorite!)
I’m Nichole. True Gemini even though I don’t really believe in all that. I like to do (serial taskmaster and recovering perfectionist), but I also love floating through undetermined hours of navel-gazing. I can’t imagine my mind being any different than how those two things have shaped it. I’m a walking contradiction. A weirdo. And that’s okay because I know, in my heart, you are, too. I’ve been thinking about the things I don’t like about things that I love like yoga, teaching, education (yes, it is different than teaching), art, reading, and myself. I’m thankful for the time, space, and community to exact them here.
Fall 2023 Grad School Introduction (I think this is my second favorite!)
Hello, Team! My name is Nichole Vaughan and I’m an International Baccalaureate teacher at Sequoia High School in Redwood City, CA. I teach 11th and 12th grade English and Theory of Knowledge (the class is exactly what it is called). I spent my summer getting reallllyyyyyy good at summer. I spent a lot of time in Northern California swimming in and boating on its really full lakes (thank you, January rain). I spent a lot of time with friends, got back in the swing of being a runner after a long hiatus during the pandemic, and taught yoga periodically at Yoga Flow in San Francisco. I ended summer by being in my best friend’s wedding and then working my friend’s restaurant booth at Outsidelands (Kendrick Lamar and the Foo Fighters were amazing). I also work as a teacher consultant for the Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP) out of Berkeley, so I delivered a few PDs to teachers and spent a week teaching argument writing to writing campers. My mind, body, and spirit are kept healthy through running, yoga, and writing. I run until my brain feels clean and decluttered, and yoga keeps my body in check with my brain. Reading fills my thinking, and writing helps me sort my thoughts. All of it combined is my favorite work.
Evolution is the perfect word to describe how my understanding of social justice has changed since starting the program. I feel like by being a better leader, I’ve gained a better understanding of how to make social justice the backbone of culture without it feeling like an “add-on” to what already exists. I have learned that social justice operates beyond policy (even though policy can facilitate the “distribution” as Social Justice in an Open World addresses). Social justice also requires an unlearning of what leaders look and sound like (often, defensive and fueled by shame) and embraces leaders who live in values that make the leader and those around the leader stronger, not scared. The explanation of social justice in Social Justice in an Open World and the brief explanation of its origins remind me that the concept is young (in the timeline of the world) and that because it is so new, it requires innovation in the implementation and cannot be separated from the role capitalism plays in its limitations and actualization. Since the term is so new, it also is going to have some reluctant or skeptical believers. Even though I’d like to believe that we are all constantly evolving to become more just, educated people, I also know that it takes skill, and patience, and empathy for socially just leaders to meet people where they are in the understanding and help facilitate the moves to scootch them beyond talking about social justice to acting socially just to bring it to fruition.
Winter January 2024 Grad School Introduction
Hello, Team! My name is Nichole Vaughan
I'm a teacher at Sequoia High School in Redwood City, CA. I teach 11th and 12th grade International Baccalaureate English Language and Literature and International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge.
I am the site facilitator for the Equity and Diversity Council, sit on the School Site Council and Site Leadership Team, and am an assistant coach for girls’ varsity basketball.
I am adopted, but I like to think that education is in my blood. My dad was a custodian of an elementary school for 29 years, and my mom has been a campus supervisor of a middle school for 22 years. Although they are not classroom teachers, their work has shown me that schools are special places for students and staff. They also showed me that any individual can embody leadership regardless of their title or position. Through them, I learned that teaching and leadership skills need to be practiced and reflected on to make the subconscious conscious and to make communities stronger and empowered by the people who belong to them.
I’m pursuing the MS in Educational Leadership to develop my leadership capabilities. I hope to hone my skills and to be guided by conscious effort, deliberate action, and great care and attention: everything I know that every educator and student is capable of. I want freedom, and equity is the way that we get there.
I do worry sometimes that the system may kill my idealism. I hope not.
I maintain a healthy work-life balance by doing a lot for work, but also having a lot of fun. I like to read, write, run, do yoga, cook, and eat (all with friends).
I want people to really push and question my thinking by offering other ideas to investigate and texts to read. I also want people to offer their perspectives with details of their context that have informed their opinion, reaction, and thinking (I think learning about other sites/experiences is so interesting).
I watched both videos and I agree with both when they argue that knowing your “why” is necessary to being a leader. But I also think that sometimes emphasizing that point is a way to stretch educators beyond their means and emotional and intellectual capacity (cognitive load is real, y’all!). There has to be a real balance of our awareness between “what we do” and “why we do it.” If we only focus on “why we do it” then the “what” can be harmful or unproductive; our “why” can easily be conflated with our intent and that can only take us so far. We can’t always remain in the rafters of “why we do it” without “what we do” bringing us back down to the practical because actions have a much more tangible impact than the ideals of “why.”
Q1 2024
My name is Nichole. I live in San Francisco and love standing in my kitchen or squatting in random places around my apartment while reading, talking on the phone, or brain-dumping into my notes app. I’m a teacher (14 years) and a student (lifetime). Lately, I feel the most joy when I check things off my to-do list, share a meal with friends, and make eye contact and share a facial expression (open-mouthed smile, smirk, eye roll, wide eyes in disbelief) with a friend when we both see or hear something we find mutually incredible. My writings come from spliced-together sentences from the Notes app, post-its in my planner, and almost indecipherable scrawls in my notebook. It’s a paradox, but I intend to sharpen my thoughts by aimlessly wandering through them with writing.
Q4 2024
My name is Nichole, and I believe in my bones that writing can change the world. I know it sounds like a hyperbole, but I have enough evidence to support the claim that hyperbole works.
I've been protecting my heart from others while forgetting that I'm the one who has broken my heart more than anyone else over the span of my lifetime. I'm here to look into that and lots of other things, too.
Concluding Thoughts
And so, I don't really know if I have any concluding thoughts about this practice besides that it was a fun reminder that the most positive ways we see ourselves are often the ways that other people (and even technology) see us, too. It's not all gloom and doom out there. And as a friend always says to me at the end of our chats when I bemoan the uphill battles that I willingly participate in (*ah-hem* more proof of ENFJ-A), "Keep your chin up, kid."
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