Misconceptions people have about you

[Poetryinaction]

Do you find people assumenthings about you? I get this a lot. Just silly things. Like, people assume I love stationery. I don't. I think it's useful to carry a biro but I couldn't care less what it looked like, and I haven't carried a pencil case for the past 20 years.

That I have always been as boring as I am now. They really struggle to see I’m boring now because I’ve grown out of learned my lesson from being exciting.

Because I'm quite chatty and outgoing and that my job involves a lot of talking to people that I'm a raging extrovert
Heck I even believed it until I finally worked out that actually I'm far more of an introvert than I realised hence why I got exhausted burnt out and anxious if I didn't get plenty of time alone to recharge.
I love my own company and love that as I've got older I no longer care what people think about that
But other people really don't get it

You sound ace @JigglypuffsCaptor

That I am highly organised. People at work always say I am organised or say things like "Ask Snuggly, she'll know". If they saw my house they would know that I live in vaguely organised chaos. I rarely bother to open post and it piles up. I tend to do things like reply to party invitations, school letters, work emails and so on immediately because I know I will lose them/forget otherwise so perhaps this is what gives the illusion of being highly efficient!

When I got married I got comments like:

-You’re the last person in the world I’d thought would ever get married
-I didn’t realise getting married was in your life plan
-you, get married?

When I got pregnant:

• are you going to keep it?
• I never imagined you would have a baby

I’m an ordinary person living an ordinary life 🤷‍♀️

All my adult life I've been perceived as 'skinny' or 'tiny'
I get comments about my weight, people ask if I weigh 7 stone, presume I'm a size 6 etc
I'm honestly baffled, I'm not big but I'm certainly not the weight or size that people see me as. It has always baffled me, I've had it all my adult life!!

I don't think it happens much now but, when I was at school, it transpired that I had a reputation for sleeping around.

The reality was I had a lot of male friends; never had a boyfriend and didn't lose my virginity until I was 20.

People think i am laid back also. i actually have alot of anxiety.

People also think i married DH for his money. he was massively in debt when we met and I was lucky enough to have an inheritance behind me which i used to pay off his debts and pay off his mortgage. That used to shit me up the wall but now I find it amusing. I am younger than him.

FWIW DH has completely changed his approach to money and even though he does not need to be he is always expresisng gratitude at how i bailed him out and never taken it for granted. (20 years married).

That I am very posh, people that swear in front of me go on to apologise to me
That I am a doormat that will do anything for anyone.

OP, I want to hear more about this French thing! Are you called Noemie or Elodie or something? Do you habitually bicycle about wearing stripey tops?

Me too on the French thing! I have spent a large part of my life wishing i were French. :) I need tips.

Do you smoke vicious cigarettes and argue about philosophy with your lover in the street at 3am? Do you throw bread away after one day? Are you obsessed with making your children eat grated carrot?

Are you on strike?

Why French?!

OP I always had that 'stuck up' label associated with me too when I was young. I was painfully shy and horrified that people would think this about me, but didn't dare assert myself to challenge it. Nowadays, the most common misconception people have about me is that I'm confident. I've just learned to fake it really well.

I mentioned to a friend that I was desperate to go to my parents second home in a national park to wfh there, though obviously I can't, just for a change of scenery.

She said "Yeah, that'd be lovely, you cod go on long walks and just be like, 'yeah, this is my land'".

Turned out various little things had added over the years to get me tagged in that friend group as coming from serious, landowner level wealth. I have no idea how!

That I'm strong, unflappable and can't be fazed.

On my first night in a homeless hostel a man got it in his head I shouldn't be there as I was posh ,stuck up and had money so should go to a hotel ,No I was shy and scared shitless , this man is now a really good friend who knows I'm not posh or stuck up and I'm as skint as he is

@Clevererthanyou

That I’m a troublemaker. Oddly enough this seems to be the opinion of family members I have no contact with and whom I discovered really bad things about. My friends, neighbours and real family have no complaints at all 🤗

This is me too. Oddly enough they never noticed that I refused to get involved in their multiple dramas but apparently I am the source

That I'm shallow and not too bright. That's what you get for being blonde with big boobs

@thecatsthecats

I'm not understanding your post. Were you sarcastically saying you wished your parents had a second home like some lucky people, or do they have a second home?

If the latter, then that's why they think you're posh and wealthy as 99% of people don't.

If the former, I don't think they know you're being sarcastic and taking you at your word.

That I'm miserable/angry. I have an overbite FFS I can't help the way my face sits.

People at my old work used to remark that I seem to have an amazingly active life and am brilliant at loads of quirky hobbies. This is from my Instagram. I'm not amazing at loads of quirky hobbies, I'm passable at a couple of things that, to someone who hasnt ever tried said activities, gives the illusion of competentancy. I lack the staying power to actually get proficient at anything. I'm also riddled with self doubt, can spend days at a time in bed depressed without showering and am alcohol dependent. Remember that if you ever look at someone's 'gram with envy!

That I'm vegetarian or vegan. It's true that I eat vegetarian food more often than not, and am fairly frequently "accidentally" vegan for a day or two, but I love cheese and good quality meat, and people seem to make this assumption without having seen me eat!
That I'm very prim and proper, people are always shocked when I do well in cards against humanity if they don't already know me well.
That I must be very clever/ knowledgeable - I'm not, I'm just good at my chosen interests and don't show much else

People always think i am vegetarian also.

My DH who used to be into hunting shooting and fishing IS now an ethical vegetarian and he was so embarrassed about making ti known among his circle of (hunting shooting and fshing friends) friends that when we went out I would order a veg meal and he would order steak and we woudl swap. It seems bonkers now. He's grown in confidence about it over the past decade!

My sister-in-law thinks that I would love to live in a gated community! I can think of nothing worse and think they are ghastly things. I don't know why she thinks this but I remember her saying to me oh you would love it there it's a gated community. I think I just looked at her in complete and utter shock I couldn't actually find anything to say. I think she's probably told the rest of DH's family this and they probably think the same but they are not so insensitive as to bring it up.

I am often assumed to be posh, a vegetarian, and/or a lesbian. The lesbian thing is because I have short hair. I also got mistaken for a doctor when I was waiting for someone to give me an injection in hospital once.

People are often surprised that DH is an engineer because he doesn't look like one, apparently.