An outsider's perspective.
It seems like it would be so easy. People that you talk to everyday, who have known you forever, or who should just plain know better - who seem to have developed a view of who you are that just doesn't make any sense. They say things about your personality, your dreams or your values that ring astonishingly false and you feel... angry.
How could you know me so well and yet not know me at all?
I realize that this misunderstanding is part of life - that we are all externally different than what we internally see (because the dialogue in our brain is, sometimes sadly and sometimes mercifully, private). But it frustrates me all the same when someone pigeonholes me with such confidence, and I know in my heart that they're dead wrong.
The difficult part of this for me is actually two-fold: 1) I feel guilty - like maybe they're right, and 2) I feel like the time spent with them has been wasted if they're not.
The truth is - in the instances of which I'm speaking - I know they aren't right. And it frustrates me so much because then - all the time I have spent has been a complete and utter waste.
I wish that people would work harder to understand the whole of a person and not a few experiences with them. I wish that people would work harder to appreciate differences in others, rather than disparage them.
I wish that people could see who I am, rather than who they think me to be.
How could you know me so well and yet not know me at all?
I realize that this misunderstanding is part of life - that we are all externally different than what we internally see (because the dialogue in our brain is, sometimes sadly and sometimes mercifully, private). But it frustrates me all the same when someone pigeonholes me with such confidence, and I know in my heart that they're dead wrong.
The difficult part of this for me is actually two-fold: 1) I feel guilty - like maybe they're right, and 2) I feel like the time spent with them has been wasted if they're not.
The truth is - in the instances of which I'm speaking - I know they aren't right. And it frustrates me so much because then - all the time I have spent has been a complete and utter waste.
I wish that people would work harder to understand the whole of a person and not a few experiences with them. I wish that people would work harder to appreciate differences in others, rather than disparage them.
I wish that people could see who I am, rather than who they think me to be.