Of Different Hats and Different Voices

Traffic has come back down to reality here on Your Favorite Blog over the last two days. It I’ve been feeling more is outed to wrote ever since I switched to some writing prompts from this particular website. With that in mind, I grabbed an interesting prompt that was suggested for today’s date…

How is your personality different in front of family, friends, strangers, and/or coworkers?

I think that we all carry ourselves differently around different people – be they family, friends, strangers or co-workers. This is something that I noticed within myself even from a fairly young age. Just as we all play different rules on the different relationships we have in our lives, I think our personality changes as well.

Forever little brother

Within my immediate family, I always have been and always will be seems as the little brother. I feel like even though Phred so only 2 years older, and Guillaume 4 years older, both my siblings act like they need to “look out” for me. Even though I have 2 kids, been divorced and spent more time out of my parents house than I spent in it, there’s always this “protector mode” they go into when it comes to me.

It has changed slightly over the years, I guess. They certainly see me as more of an equal now, but those sibling instincts still kick in from time to time.

The former pack leader

I Don’t really see my friends as much as I used to; mostly because that’s what happens to men as they get older. But I feel like most of my friends in college saw me as “the cool guy”. I know during my bar-hopping days, I was the ring-leader. I was usually the person who (at least) put together our trips to the bar; if I wasn’t also the guy who drove.

I think another reason they looked at me like that is because I was the guy who would go and approach girls at the bar or on the dance floor. They seem to ignore all the times that I got rejected; and only seemed to remember the times that I successfully picked someone up. For all I know, they were just treating me this way in order to build up my own confidence as much as anything else.

During the final season of the Long running TV series, happy days, there was a two part episode when Ron Howard returned to reprise his role as Ritchie Cunningham. In a moment of art imitating life, Richie is discharged from the Army and decides to pursue a career in Hollywood as a filmmaker. A sub plot to this episode Richie’s parents and the Fonz treat Richie the same way they did when he left for the army three seasons earlier. Fonzie realizes that Richie is no longer a kid who needs his “cool tough guy” friend to defend him. Richie is a grown man now and capable of taking care of himself.

I have never once an vision of myself as Fonzie to any of my friends Richie Cunningham. But, I was also the first one for my circle of friends to have a serious girlfriend. The first one to get married. The first one to have a child, The first one to go through a divorce; and finally, the first one who had to rebuild his life, twice. I look at my friends now, and most of them are happily married; in some cases, with children. It’s a little bit humbling, I guess.

Like father…

I know I’ve talked about this before in other posts, but one of the things that really fascinates me is the little nuances that I pick up from my parents. I’m not talking about things like celebrating Christmas Eve and Christmas Day equally, or being sure that I cover up any valuables in the car whenever I go park in public. I’m talking about the smaller things.

For instance, The Old Man had this way of saying “how ya doin?” When he approached an acquaintance or met somebody for the first time. And no, he didn’t say it the way that Joey used to say it to women on Friends. One day, without even realizing it. I started doing the same thing. I can’t even remember where I was, maybe I was filming the wedding with him one time when I heard him approach somebody and say that. And that moment, it dawned on me “I say that just like the old man!“

I always project myself as someone who is warm, friendly, and approachable. A lot of people will ask me if I’ve ever served in the military, or if I ever even played high school football. They tell me that there’s just something about the way that I carry myself that makes them think that.

Strong enough to be gentle.

Larry Cullen, US Marine veteran and brother to than-aspiring voice actor Peter Cohen, gave his brother advice on portraying Optimus Prome, Larry said “be a real hero. Be strong enough to be gentle”

It took me well over a decade to figure out how to strike this balance, but with my students, I try to project myself as strong enough to be gentle. I’m an easy-going guy, and even at my current school, students gravitated towards me right away. But I think they also know, when it comes down to it, I could get loud and I can get pushy. I just choose not to. I think the fact that I’ve also taught in some really rough areas – and my students know it – has only helped my reputation.

As for my actual coworkers, other teachers, teachers, I think they view me as a corpsman. Somebody who’s dependable. Somebody who will be there and doesn’t generally take sick days unless there’s something going on with the family or I’m legitimately ill.

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, 👍 comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related posts:

The article “Of different hands and different voices“ first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.

One response to “Of Different Hats and Different Voices”

kukstoryafrica10

January 17, 2025

I think different people bring out different versions of ourselves. 😊

LikeLiked by 1 person

Reply