Writing Prompt: Personality House

The Housekeeper was a formidable woman. She ran the household with frugality and matchless efficiency. Because of her, things were kept in order. She knew just when to delegate a task and when it would be foolish to let anyone else handle it, and she never stopped working until the job was done. Her mere presence kept the rest of the inhabitants in line.

Except for the Young Man, that is.

The Young Man was lazy and selfish. He put off anything that needed doing for as long as possible, and only grudgingly and sloppily completed tasks that could no longer be avoided. He liked to stay out late and party, and was an amateur stand-up comedian, telling raunchy jokes for the amusement of his peers. Though the other members of the household considered him a spendthrift who happily shirked his responsibilities, he was fully aware of his actions every time they caused pain and disappointment. He had no plans to change, but every hurt he inflicted was the source of ten times as much guilt.

Especially when it came to the Young Lady.

The Young Lady was a dreamer, a reader, and a learner. She loved to sit and read for hours, mostly she preferred romantic works of great adventure and heroism. Occasionally she would accept a recommendation from the housekeeper of an interesting historical book, and after becoming a master of its contents, she would consider herself an expert on the subject and lecture to anyone she met about it. Secretly, she was a writer herself, but didn’t think she was any good and so shared her work with no one. She had once made an exception for the Young Man, but he had only callous, mocking words for her, and so she hid her ambition further away.

This was a mistake; if she had ever shown her stories to the housekeeper, she could have become a celebrated author.

Writing Prompt #751

In choosing this writing prompt, I have most likely revealed tons of stuff about my personality (and how I view my personality). I didn’t want to think about it too much, though, and just give the idea of different parts of myself as unstudied as I could. Instead of possibly overthinking it, I just wanted to get it down.

I feel like The Housekeeper a lot. This part of my personality often finds itself changing old sayings, especially “If you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself.” (She changes the “something” to “anything” and leaves out “right.”) She’s the reason stuff gets done around my house, and the reason money gets saved when buying the groceries.

The Young Man part of my personality doesn’t come up often (except for his procrastination), and when it does it gets checked by The Housekeeper. “Don’t say that, it would be rude!” It depends on the situation whether her advice is taken or not.

The younger version of myself will always be with me, no matter how old I get, and so will her self-doubt. It’s not something I think about constantly, but when I do, I always struggle with it. The Young Man “helps” by telling me that I suck compared to other people (but then he always feels guilty about it).

This was an interesting exercise, and I’d encourage you to think about, if not write about, the three people in your Personality House.