The Social Experiment of Being a Quiet Person

for all my quiet people / introverts here: does anyone else feel like being a quiet person is like a social experiment? i’ve been told by people that i am intimidating and unapproachable, but when they got to know me i was super friendly and nicer than they thought. i’ve had people make mean and unnecessary indirect comments about me. i’ve had people equate my quietness with not having a social life or friends (which is not true). i’ve had people assume so many things about me, one person literally even disliking me (side eye 👀🤨), without ACTUALLY having a conversation with me. it’s wild, people can be such weirdos. i think a lot of these people take my quietness personally; as if i don’t talk to them because i don’t like them or whatever weird narrative they’ve created in their heads about me. other than it being immature, kind of stupid, and absurd, it’s very interesting actually. probably bc i’m a psych minor lol. tbh, sometimes i feel like i could just avoid all the misunderstandings on my character by being a bright, social butterfly, but i think there’s something beautiful about being a quiet person, and i don’t want to feel like i need to change who i am to make OTHER people comfortable. like i’m not sorry that you can’t go like 5 seconds hearing your own voice and being the center of attention. but here’s a question: what is something you like about being quiet and hate about being quiet? blessing or a curse?