Mistaken Identity

Does this happen to you?

I'm sitting at the local Rita's yesterday, enjoying my ice and borrowing their bandwidth to complain to a friend on Facebook that she LIED, because this location didn't have the Caramel Apple Cream Ice.

As I'd just finished work for the day, I was dressed in business attire. A gentleman comes in and wishes to use a coupon that has expired. When the young lady behind the counter apologizes that it is no longer valid, he appeals to me to allow him to use it.

Yep, it's happened again. I've been mistaken for someone in authority or as having some skill I do not possess.

It happens a lot. Just last week, I was mistaken for a medical professional, because I know how to triage a medical situation. Nope, no training-just well versed in what doctors and nurses need to know, thanks to my own health issues. The person only realized that I wasn't one of the pros when I put a blood pressure cuff on backwards.

On the college campus, I was engaged in a conversation with a member of the staff and one of the IT guys. It was clear I was killing time before my class began. The staffer asked if I was waiting for Dr. so and so's class to begin. She was convinced I was a grad student. The look of surprise when I said that I was 37 credits shy of my Bachelor's is one I've come to know well.

Heck, two weeks before, at the campus Emerging Leader's conference, one of my tablemates thought I was an adjunct-in a seminar that was meant for students. "What course do you teach?". None...yet.

Each time it happens, it ends up being a great ice breaker. I take each instance of mistaken identity as a huge compliment, that someone thinks I am well versed enough in whatever we're conversing about that I must be an expert, a member of that field that is the topic of conversation.

Sometimes, I wish I could parlay that into some sort of marketable job skill. In the meantime, I'm just enjoying the recent spate of mistaken identity.

Comments

Jill said…
You're lucky that people think positive things about you. I always get mistaken for someone much younger. Like when the home appraisal lady came to the door and asked if my dad was home. Ugh.

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