You Read Me Wrong
I'd say it is pretty close to 9 times out of 10 that people size me up wrong. So much so, that I've learned to adapt to it. Ego is an interesting thing...it's massive self-deception. When you have no humility, you question nothing, and are ruled by assumptions. When it all goes wrong, you're not just dealing with being “off” on something...you're also having to deal with your own self-perception and deception.
There are people who couldn't get their real estate license, get into nursing school, reach fitness goals, cope with having triplets, or have a special needs child....walking around as though I'm beneath them, and have nothing to offer the world. When I show up, and achieve something, it causes a dark night of the soul, or tower moment for them, that had absolutely nothing to do with me. It was the lies they were telling themselves to hold their head up on a daily basis, to feel superior. It's their stuff. Not mine.
In my married life, I didn't work, I owned 2 homes, lived in multiple places, went on vacations now and then, and had nice cars. To some people, I will always be that person. To others, they can't even imagine me being in that spot.
I went to a pretty notorious high school here in Houston, Texas. When I moved here from the suburbs of Toronto, Canada....it was pretty shocking to get put on lock down in first period, frequently my Freshman year, so the drug dogs could search our school all day. We couldn't practice for drill team / dance team outside often during the whole "East Coast / West Coast" time period because of drive-bys. There were some very known gangs at our school, and for quite a time the wards were bused in, to go to school where I did.
It was a culture that did have an effect on me, and rubbed off. I was also mentally predisposed to it a little bit. I've had to work diligently on keeping my tone down when people “come for me”, or I perceive it that way.
I can't help how I look, or what people initially perceive me as, or how they do. More often than not, they're incorrect though. "Judging a book by its cover" is a you thing, not a them thing.
