impressions

have you ever experienced meeting a person for the first time and then feeling really weird about it? i mean, you know when you get a "fight or flight" reaction even though the person is not doing anything to you? what about meeting a person and knowing right there and then that you're going to be friends?

i believe most of us have the ability to discern the kind of person we are dealing with. we all have the capability to detect whether the person is good or bad. sometimes, these abilities are more honed in others while others just need to develop it by using it more often.

whenever i meet people the first time, i tend to observe them first. i don't easily get close to people and there a re few i can get close with the first time i meet them.

to be honest, i always doubt people. i am always in alert mode when i meet new people. i try to discern the kind of person i'm dealing with, partly to avoid offending them unnecessarily and partly to keep my self safe. my opinion about someone is not affected by the first impression though (unless they prove to be consistent). as i have said, i observe people. day by day, as i deal with them i try to fit together the bits and pieces they throw at me and try to form a picture out of it.

i always believe that to know, understand and accept a person better, we have to know not only their present but also their past. history affects the behavior of a person. to better understand why a person does what he does, we have to know their past. no matter how much we try to keep the past from affecting our lives, whatever happened to us before changes our personality and help mold us into what we are now.

what is sad though is that, though i always do my best not to judge people base on first impression, a lot of people never gave me the same opportunity to prove myself.