I can actually recollect of recent when i was completely misunderstood me when they first met me. Funny enough, it was someone who eventually became a good friend of mine, much later on. When she first came to the office, I honestly did not think much of it. I am not the type of person who sees someone new and immediately starts trying to become their best friend. I will greet you, be respectful and go about my business. I like my work, I do what I have to do and, most times, I am perfectly happy going to work and coming back home.
So when she joined the office, I treated her the same way I usually treat everyone. I wasn't rude to her, I wasn't deliberately ignoring her. I just wasn't going out of my way to make conversation or constantly check on her. To me, there was nothing unusual about that. Apparently, she saw it very differently, as time went on, we gradually started talking more. We worked around each other, had conversations here and there, joked about things and eventually became much closer. The more we got to know each other, the more comfortable we became and honestly I think she eventually discovered that I was very different from the person she had initially imagined.
So, after we had become pretty good friends, she casually told me what she had thought about me when she first arrived. She said she thought I was unfriendly. I laughed because, in my head, I was thinking, "Really?" She explained that when she first came to the office, I seemed like someone who didn't want to have anything to do with anybody. She thought I was serious, distant and probably the kind of person who preferred to keep everyone at arm's length.
The funny thing was that, by that point, she knew me well enough to realise how wrong that first impression had been. I told her that I simply don't know how to force familiarity. When someone is new, I don't immediately start asking them a hundred questions or trying to make them feel like we've known each other for years. I usually give people their space and allow things to develop naturally and once I get comfortable with you, that's when you see the real me. I can talk, joke around, laugh and generally be one of the friendliest people you will meet. I just don't necessarily show all of that within the first few minutes of meeting someone.
What made the whole thing funny was that the same person who initially thought I was unfriendly eventually became someone I could comfortably talk to. If she had never told me what she thought of me at the beginning, I probably would never have known. It also made me realise how easily we can create entire stories about people based on very little information. The truth is, we rarely know what is actually going on with someone. In my case, I wasn't trying to be unfriendly. I just like going to work, doing my job and coming back home. I don't feel the need to immediately become everyone's friend.