“What character from a book, movie, TV show, etc. do you relate to or feel a strong connection to?” According to Vanessa Van Edwards, a behavioral researcher I was listening to, this question is supposed to reveal something about your self-narrative. Take a moment to answer the question for yourself. Only one character came to my mind: Jinx from Arcane season 1. That troubled me at first. If you met me, you would describe me as composed, methodical, and maybe even sociable. That’s a mask. That’s how I learned to overcome my shyness. Beneath the mask, I am Jinx. Obviously, our lives and values could hardly be more different, but our natures are exactly the same. (Read my analysis of Jinx here: “The Resilience of Human Nature in the Character of Jinx”) When I broke down Jinx’s big 5 personality traits, I somehow didn’t process that they were the same as mine.
The connection doesn’t stop there, though. Growing up, all of my stuffed animals had their own personalities, backstories, character arcs… yeah, the whole nine yards. My brother and I each had a Beanie Baby lion who had our personalities and were representations of us within the stuffed animal world. Mine was named Jinx, and he had an underground workshop for building robots. It's a crazy parallel.
One of my main resolutions for this year is to learn how to engage with people without masking, to live authentically. It’s taking a lot of self-acceptance to get there, but this was a huge lead forward.
