Their was a time when someone made an assumption about me without really knowing me. They apparently thought I was snobby and full of myself, when in the real sense, i have always just been the really quiet and shy type. I don't talk unnecessarily, I don't go around seeking attention and trying to be noticed, I am simply minding my own business. So somehow, being quiet and keeping to myself had been interpreted as me thinking I was better than everyone else.
I honestly found it funny, i kept wondering how being quiet could automatically make someone arrogant. If I am sitting quietly and keeping to myself, what exactly am I supposed to be doing? Going from person to person just so nobody thinks I am snobby? I have never really been that kind of person. I am comfortable being on my own, and I don't feel the need to constantly interact with everyone around me. Like, this person didn't really know me well enough to make that judgment. They had seen one side of me and somehow created an entire personality around it. I wasn't given the chance to explain myself, and honestly, I didn't bother trying to. I just let them run with their mindset, I didn't really care enough to start defending myself. If someone has already decided who you are without taking the time to actually know you, sometimes there isn't much point trying to convince them otherwise. They are going to believe whatever version of you they have created in their head anyway.
Still, I would be lying if I said it didn't hurt a little. It does feel strange when you realise that someone has been thinking about you in a completely different way from who you actually are. Especially when the assumption is negative. You start wondering what you did to give them that impression, even when you know you haven't really done anything. I'm like why make someone else's personality such a concern of yours when you don't even know them? If someone is quiet, let them be quiet. If someone doesn't talk much, maybe that's just who they are. Not everyone who keeps to themselves is arrogant, antisocial or thinks they are better than everyone else. Sometimes people just like to mind their business.
I think we are sometimes too quick to fill in the blanks about people. We see someone who doesn't talk much and immediately create a story about them. We see someone who doesn't smile often and assume they are unfriendly but there could be a hundred different reasons behind someone's behaviour that we know absolutely nothing about. For me, I decided not to let someone else's assumption change how I behaved. I wasn't going to suddenly become more talkative just to prove that I wasn't arrogant. I wasn't going to chase them down and explain my personality. I simply continued being myself. If they eventually got to know me and realised they were wrong, fine. If they didn't, that was also fine.
At the end of the day, I know who I am. I know that being quiet doesn't mean I think I'm better than anyone. I just like my peace, I mind my business, and I don't feel the need to be everywhere or involved in everything.