Bloganuary Day 9: the road goes ever on…

What do people incorrectly assume about you?

There are some general misconceptions about me that I am more than happy not to disavow. Chief among these would probably be the impression that I actually know what I’m talking about more than half the time.

I was haunted by this when I was working. In fact, I probably did know what I was on about, if it related to the strategic and operational minutiae of leading European banks, which was my ‘specialist subject’, as it were, as an investment analyst. However, Imposter Syndrome – the fear of being unmasked as a fraud – was never far away.

This particular prompt, though, does provide an opportunity to correct one widely held misconception that has dogged me for much of my life. I would therefore like it to be known that, as a general rule, I am NOT a miserable bastard.

I just look like one.

It can’t be helped. At rest, my features naturally relax into what it is certainly possible to mistake for a scowl. The upside of this is that it makes people more inclined to leave me the hell alone. The downside is that I am liable to be asked questions such as ‘are you okay?’ or ‘what have I done now?’

A former work colleague once told me that I walked around the office as if I was looking for somebody to cut in half. Actually, in that specific environment this was perfectly possible, but you get the general idea.

I fully recognise that I simply do not have a generally warm and welcoming air about me. On the other hand, I don’t have an inane rictus grin permanently pasted on either. So there’s that.

I remember once reading somewhere that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries foreigners would often remark that Dutch protestants always appeared in public looking very stern and serious. Although Calvinism being what it is, they probably meant it.

No Calvinist me.

So dear reader, don’t be misled by my external appearance. Inside I’m really a bundle of fun.

Just a pussycat.