The curse of the bitchy resting face

So today dear readers I am going to rant a bit.

I am going to rant about something that I don’t think I am alone in – my face.

Or to be more specific, the fact that I do not have a “naturally cheerful” face. In fact, with my face in it’s natural state, I probably come across as pretty grumpy. It also what is known on youtube as Bitchy resting face syndrome.

So yesterday I was standing in the elevator at work, minding my own business on my way down to the coffee shop. I was neither, angry, concerned, stressed or anything. Ok, perhaps a little tired but it was early in the morning and I hadn’t had my morning cuppa yet. I might have even been thinking about kittens in my head or something.

And THEN – random colleague in the elevator whom I do not know, just turns to me and says “cheer up, you should be smiling – it’s MONDAY!!!”

Ok, without even going into the details of how all sorts of wrong it is to smile because it’s MONDAY (who does that) there is seriously nothing that is more likely to make me grumpy, than some random person telling me I look grumpy because I am not smiling.

I am happy on the inside! I just look this way! How rude is it even to say that to someone you don’t know?? All those things I wanted to say to him, however I did the usual and just smiled and said “oh I will be smiling once I get my coffee” and just made it the hell out of that lift as soon as I could. I do realise he meant nothing by it, and I just didn’t want to spend my time on a Monday morning to educate people on whether it is acceptable or not to tell other people to cheer up.

Another time after a pretty tiring weekend with the extended family (in-laws) I had a 90-ish year old lady wanting to leave me and Pete some life advise before she said goodbye. Her advice to Pete – “grab life by the balls yadiyadi etc etc.”

Her advice to me? “I have only one thing to say to you – you need to smile more, because it makes such a difference to your face, and NOBODY likes a grumpy face!”

… uhm.. ok did you just tell me I look ugly for not smiling at you? Well now I am definitely angry – go away annoying old woman!

The thing is that this happens fairly regularly. I just don’t have a very happy face.

I may be happy or laughing on the inside, but my face is not necessarily equipped to naturally adapt to this emotion. For example, in the below picture I have stolen from Sarah’s Instagram, I have just devoured 3 pieces of chocolate, and was on my way back home from an great weekend in Bruges. Do I look happy? Not necessarily. Was I as unhappy that I look in the picture? Definitely not!

So that was my rant for the day. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. I haven’t even gotten into how uncomfortable I am with public displays of affection, crying in the cinema, hugging strangers, or hugging close friends for that matter. And that whole kissing of the cheek when saying hello. Basically all those little social codes that are accepted as the norm these days.

Hello my name is Cecilia and I come across as a grumpy, switched off, unhappy bugger to people who do not know me. BUT INSIDE I AM LAUGHING!!