A Thing I believe

The image of you people carry is one-half your behavior and one-half their own baggage about you. If someone is of the opinion you're a curmudgeon, they're going to see you as one even if you're being cheerful. If they think you're a closed-off person, they won't notice when you're just being quiet because you have nothing to say. If they think you're an emotional basket case, they'll think you are even when you're holding everything together. They will always see you through their own filters, and you can only affect that to a point.