Type Four with Genevieve Lachance

Genevieve Lachance is a wife, mama, maker, and designer who is always a bit late. She lives in Ontario, Canada. Connect with her on Twitter: @genevieveolivia.

 How long have you known about the Enneagram?

I have known about it for almost a year now.

How long have you known your type?

I could tell my type just from a friend reading me the descriptions. It was very obvious to me that I am a type Four based on the short little blurbs she read.

What do you wish people knew about being your type?

I wish people knew that despite different descriptions, type Fours are not always vain and self-obsessed, and that our sort of “extra-ness” in terms of wanting to be “different” is not always from place of superiority or feeling better than others. Personally, I just like trying different styles and hairstyles and makeup looks (or hobbies, or whatever it might be) as a form of self-expression and for fun. I feel so much, and I need to express that somehow. I have an intense desire to create and an intense desire to know myself and be known. It is a search for identity, but also a fun way of expressing myself and exploring different ways of being. For me, it has nothing to do with feeling superior or wanting attention. In fact, I would prefer as little attention as possible lol. I think a lot of descriptions of Fours are very negative sounding and basically make us sound like narcissists.  

What do you like about being your type?

I like being a Four because I see and experience beauty and emotion easily and freely. I love to express and invite others into this experience. In my life this looks like art and music. I can feel intensely. I can get distracted by texture on a tree, or colours of nature and lights in the city. It’s like being able to see the art and beauty in everything, and at times being able to see the sadness in everything. I am lost in this balance of an intensely beautiful and yet intensely sad world and trying to figure out where I fit and how to thrive/cope with everything. 

What challenge(s) does being your type bring?

Being a Four is challenging to me because I feel like I am the most right-brained, hot mess of a person. lol. I always feel like my life is a wreck and so many people seem so together. I absorb everything. I experience such a dramatic range of emotions on a daily basis. It can be very tiring. I struggle to see things clearly, and not through the lense of my emotions. I can empathize powerfully and easily, which has its challenges and benefits. I can be emotionally flattened for days by a sad story that has nothing to do with my life. I struggle to resist being attracted to sad things (I hope that makes sense?) because I crave intense FEELING and it is easier to create sad emotions than happy ones for me. So I sometimes will get too wrapped up in sad news stories or true crime. It’s very bizarre, and I was so relieved to find out I was a type Four because it made me realize why I am drawn to these things, and empowered me to know that it is an unhealthy thing for me to do, and to try to create depth of emotion in real ways that are healthy and constructive. It’s almost like I need an emotional high every day, so I have to create positive experiences that give me that. Or at times I will unknowingly blow things out of proportion or create drama (my husband will attest to this) because I need some sort of feeling. I hate this about myself and I hate it in other people lol. Reading about type Four was extremely eye opening for me. I’m not crazy; I’m just a type Four! Give me music and an art studio with food, a ton of plants and no people, and I’ll be good.

This is part of a 31-day series: The Enneagram. To read all posts, head here.