I've been called a lot of contradictory things, which seems to be very common. I think this says a lot about how people are complex creatures who tend to show only parts of themselves to certain people or in reaction to certain situations, and so other people only get a glimpse of the full picture of who someone is.
For some things that are more consistent about what people say about me, I get "quiet" a lot, which annoys me only because I hear it so often that it seems like that's the only thing people think of me sometimes. I also seem to give people the impression that I'm this harmless, good girl a lot. I do feel like I’m a good person, but I’m not as “harmless†or “good†as they think I am. In fact, I once had a professor tell me she thought of me as the touchstone of goodness, which baffled and kind of terrified me.
I’ve been called “an analyzer with a capital Aâ€â€”ha! Very, very true. Along with that, people also seem to notice quickly that I’m the person who will notice the possible things that could go wrong with what we’re talking about or what we have to do and ask questions about them to try to make sure these things don’t happen. What they don’t realize is that there’s usually many more negative possibilities that I’m worried about that I don’t say out loud.
Some other things that people say about me are that I’m responsible, hard-working, lazy, random (my brother said that), intelligent, off in my own world, courageous, cynical, positive, cheerful, cold, intensely emotional, having no emotions . . . so, yeah, contradictory, lol. I agree that I am all these things some of the time--except for “lazyâ€; I don't do things half-assed.
The most true thing that was said about me was when my co-worker told me that I seemed like I was a rebel at heart who was either deliberately or unintentionally giving off a vibe of being a compliant good girl. I denied this at the time since in the culture that I was in at the time, being a “rebel†was a vice. But honestly . . . this may be the most accurate thing anyone’s ever said about me.