What makes you tick???

I was partly inspired by Espy comment : " But then some people just never get me, and that's real apparent, and pretty common with me. I get the confused, deer in the headlight look from people quite often, at this point I'm kinda shocked anytime someone does appear to understand me."

It kinda got me thinking, what makes you tick? I mean what really is your driving force in life and what qualities do you possess that either draw or repell people to/from you? Do you feel like alot of what you do, is misunderstood and leads to people misunderstanding your true character? Do you live your life in the open or do you build up a facade and only let a handful of people see the true you? Hell a better ? do you even understand you most of the time?

 

I understand me fine and rarely surprise myself, I can think of literally one instance in the last 20 years or so when that's happened.

People are almost always drawn to me. I think I either look really helpful, or really knowledgeable because random strangers will stop me every time I leave the house to ask for directions, where to find the cotton balls in Wal-Mart, what kinda grout to buy in Lowes, the list is endless. I also get stopped often just for small talk by people I don't know from Adam. It's kinda the norm with me.

The not being understood part is mostly the fault of the person I'm talking to IMO. I say exactly what I mean, I don't play games, I don't do passive/aggressive, nor is there ever hidden meaning in anything I say or do. I'm just real straight-forward and that confuses darn near everyone. I also get misunderstood a lot considering how straight-forward I am. That's also their fault for always trying to look for some hidden meaning, or secret agenda... I have none just take it for what it is... please.

It happens so often I generally warn anyone who I think I'm going to be interacting with on a regular basis. I always tell them to just take whatever I say at face value, and for some reason that's apparently hard to do. I don't see the problem really, especially since clients and past employers always see that as a plus, it's only in personal, non-work related relationships that I run into the 'I just don't get you' stuff.

Some people learn over time, some never do and are always going around scratching their heads. I have a friend who I had several misunderstandings with one right after the other, and I mean the type that caused him to end the conversation really abruptly. He just kept trying to deal with me as he did most people and always thought there was hidden subtext so I'd get in trouble for something I didn't even say, but rather what he read into what I did say. Confused me because I would have no idea what I did at all. Took about 6 months to work past that, thankfully I'm real patient. I commented to him the other day; either you're getting better at speaking Espy, or I'm getting better at articulating, cause we seem to be communicating with less mishaps of late... he said 'little bit of both I think'. :smt042

 

Unsure if you want us to say what pisses us off or how people perceive us.

But I think people kinda misunderstand me, but not when I'm talking to them. It's my facial expression and body language that gives people to impression that I'm mean, angry, or want to fight someone, but that's just how I look. When I actually talk to people, they get the real me. I guess some people don't really see me as coming off angry, or they do and just don't care and talk to me anyway. I've heard a few people tell me when they saw me back in high school, they thought that I was an asshole or hated everybody(Although I kinda did back then) or was uptight or was snobby/preppy(the fuck?) but I don't think people really misunderstood me when they talked to me. I guess it was because they were so surprised that I was a regular chill person when I first spoke to them and not the angry looking dude who didn't go out of his way to speak to people he didn't know on campus.

I high school, a lot of the time, my angry appearance is what drew people to me.

However, I don't care too much about who misunderstands me if I don't really know them. The people I am close to understand me and it doesn't take long for somebody who doesn't understand me to begin understanding me.

 

That ho down the street.

 

What makes me tick? Hmmm...

I'm a fairly easy person to get along with and to figure out. I wear my heart on my sleeve, as they say.

I tend to lean towards solitude most of the time, though. I think solitude has become my defense mechanism because I've been so unbelievably misunderstood all my life. I sometimes wonder if I'm speaking a foreign language and don't know it. LOL.

I don't play games with people's minds. I'm a straight-shooter. I do believe that my being misunderstood falls on how others perceive me, though. Like others have said, I believe that so many people are looking for hidden meanings, trying to read between the lines, reading subtexts that just aren't there when they speak to me. Which in turn causes problems.

Men seem to be more drawn to me, and whilst people will tell me it's because of my boobs, I can say, my boobs may pull them in, but those aren't the only things keeping them sticking around. Women, on the other hand, I tend to repel. I have very few female friends and I would say that my two best friends are guys. I feel more comfortable opening up to guys than I do to women. I don't know why that is.

I also get people talking to me in public. Not a lot, but it does happen. I apparently have one of those faces that people will come up to me and tell me that I look familiar. I don't know. :smt102

My driving force? I'm just a girl who loves to sit around and have intellectual conversations with a big group and who loves museums and movies and reading and learning. :smt023

 

He didnt ask what made you leak.

 

leaky
sucky
fucky
geeky
spanky
ticky,

Dont make no difference to this chimp, they all the same to me, lol

 

oh!!!
nice po-em!!!!

ol
ol
ol

 

What makes me tick?

Self-reliance! I come off as being selfish and stubborn at times. I'm a very stoic person. I tend to want to do everything myself. When things are done by me it's done correctly but if something goes wrong I have no one to blame but myself. That's what I like and what makes me tick.

 

I think that pretty much explains how people perceive me. I had to be evaluated by my peers for a promotion and some of the things that came back were that I was standoffish, brash, unapproachable. But, honestly I think sometimes people allow their perceptions become reality and easier for them instead of getting to know someone. At work I am very direct... mean what I say and say what I mean. I am this way so there is no room for miscommunication. There is a lot of drama and such so I make sure I do not get sucked in. People that take time to know me know how I really am and that is all that matters to me.

 

What makes me tick..

knowledge and learning.... striving to make things better, trying to make a difference.
I love simple things, a walk in the woods, a camp fire... fishing on a lake shore.... swimming at night...... anything outside in nature basically - these are the things that makes me happy - and of course feeling loved/love.


I'm often misunderstood by people who don't know me.
I'm initially often perceived as weak, helpless, and not so smart.
Maybe its because Im petite people assume you cant be mentally strong?? I dont know.

All of that is of course the complete opposite of who I really am, I get told this all the time by people that are getting to know me.
Never bothered me.

 

I'm very spontaneous and I'm always real because I can't fake too much, especially when I feel bad. I happened to feel not understood but sometimes it was my fault because I used not to know how to express myself and risked sounding aggressive, without meaning it. My work has changed me a bit, even though I still need to work on myself.

I'm a very sweet and caring person, I'm very spontaneusly affectionate and most of time it's taken as a weakness or that might scare people, but I'm just like that and don't know what to do about it.

Something in me changed in the last year because I had many changes in my life... I've been told by kind of "sensitive" people that they feel something different in me and that this change affects positively people who are around me, like I spread a special happiness/stability aura. I can't tell if it's true or not, so can't really tell if that's just misunderstanding my kindness for something else

 

The need to be great where others are only good.
The need to succeed where others fail.
The need to stay true to myself.
The need to know I gave it my all.
The need to know I made the ones I care about proud of me.
The need to help those who cant help themselves.
The need to be taking serious enough to get respect yet not too serious where I cant laugh at myself.
The need to have a purpose in life.
I'll think of some more things that make me tick later.

 

Great post, Kush. You find a way to impress me every day