I remember a seminar that I added with my co-workers 12 years ago where we were asked to critique ourselves and each other. When my turn came, I tried to be as honest as I can about my plus and minus traits. As I have finished, it one of my c0-workers gave his view about me and one of them was that I was WEIRD. I was a good sport and accepted his view about me, but it also made me realize that I should express myself clearly so that people won't get me misunderstood. Remembering that session, reminds me of the song "Misunderstood" by The Animals.
As much as I hate to admit it, this happens to me a lot. From high school to college (especially college), I was getting the feeling that people had a particular view of me (due to my ragged appearance as well as my long hair and beard)and as a result, I had difficulty connecting with a lot of "mainstream" people back then. It wasn't all bad, some of them though were able to get to know me well and as a result, I wasn't that alienated. However, experiences like that taught me to be careful about how I should act towards others. I had to learn how to make people accept me for who I am so as not to get the wrong idea about me because if not, this was going to happen a lot of times.
The important thing that I learned from this experience is to learn clearly how to express who you are as well as your ideas so as not to alienate others from you. Sometimes there are a lot of good things that you can contribute but it won't do much if people think you're weird. Learn to express yourself in such a way that they see you're intentions are good so that you earn their trust and friendship. I've been trying to do that more and more everyday. The one thing I don't want to happen anymore is to be misunderstood.
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