Misunderstandings or not???

Just had a confrontation with my roommates. First time that I raised up the issue of having the feeling of being led. I reasoned that most of the time I act submissively and they presumed that I'm someone who is easily convinced or someone who would agree to everything they say. But reality is that, although I'm a quiet person, I do have opinions. I like to keep them to myself because I hate when I have to convince the other what I said is right, and also I respect others' opinions so I just let them talk. Maybe the latter is a bad idea because then I establish myself to be this laid back, neutral, submissive being who will listen and believe in whatever other people said. Also, I hate the feeling when I second doubt myself because someone has said I'm wrong. Lastly, I don't think we all have the same sense of humor. I didn't think that could be such a problem. I'm uncertain of whether it is in fact a problem. But perhaps somewhere between me and my cultural and social upbringing, and their background, somethings are lost in translation.

I think my life has a lot of gray area and sometimes I heard things at the wrong timing or people say things at the wrong timing.

One said that I react defensively to things that they thought were jokes. Actually, most of the time, I understand and I DO laugh with them, but what happened just now wasn't misunderstanding. I was talking in a serious tone of voice with both of them, even though Linda is sitting in the other room, but Linda suddenly said "Express yourself. Express yourself." And I responded, " What? Wasn't I expressing myself?" And Helen defended Linda saying that she didn' mean it literally. She was joking, but I wasn't joking so of course I wouldn't see what she meant. So that was misunderstanding, but not about not understanding the joke, just that it was said at a bad time.....so is that misunderstanding??? OMG........gotta go study final. I will put this off till later