I feel like I differ very heavily in personality from one of my kintypes, but at the same time I don’t feel like that’s bad? like, my kintype is a road I’ve been down that led to Very Bad Things and I know how to work around that now? is that normal?

Absolutely. You’re on the right track here. Of course the people we are now differ from the personalities we’ve had before, because our experiences and bonds in this world have influenced us just as much as the ones that have come before them.

I think of my experiences as kin the same way as I think of my experiences when I was five. Things that happened to me in a different place, in the past, when I was a very different person, but still have contributed to make me the person I am today.