First Impressions

This week I have been sick and out of school. When I wasn’t sleeping or coughing I was watching movies. I was watching A Cinderella Story, which is a modern day version of Cinderella, and something the main character, Sam/Cinderella, said that stuck with me. At one point in the movie she is talking with “prince charming” who claims that he has no idea who she really is, but that he knows that he has seen her before. She tells him, “Maybe you were looking but you weren’t really seeing.” That’s something many of us do. When we see a girl dressed in a promiscuous fashion, and most often we assume that she is exactly that: promiscuous. We make assumptions based on first impressions, but that isn’t right or fair.
We don’t know everything about someone when we first meet them. Heck, even after years of knowing someone you may not know everything about them.
I know that I have misjudged people in my life. My best friend, for example, was someone that I sorely misjudged. He came to Holbrook in the sixth grade, and I thought he was a snob. He came across as some jerk who thought he owned the world, or at least that was what I thought. Now that I see who he really is I know that what I thought was dead wrong. I was mistaken to assume I knew him because I talked to him for fifteen minutes. He is sweet and funny…and he is my best friend. I also know what it is like to be judged based on a first impression.
When I was in junior high I was weird. I was awkward, and I had a hard time making friends. I know that many of the kids I went to school with avoided me for this very reason. What they don’t know is what I was going through at the time. My mother was getting a divorce, and it really hurt me. I was twelve and didn’t know how to express my feelings, but that didn’t stop the other kids from making fun of me. I don’t hold it against them now because I’m older and they understand what I was dealing with. However, at the time they still took one look at me and thought I was a freak, and it hurt.
It is a knee- jerk reaction to make judgments about someone the first time we meet them. We just need to get into the practice of not acting on those assumptions. If we try to get to know them and see them for who they really are there will be less anger and fighting in the world. People wouldn’t have so many enemies because there would be better communication between us. Judgments are harsh and often wrong. Here’s the lesson: try not to act on first impressions. Don’t let them be the deciding factor on which people you’re friends with. Otherwise you might miss out on some fabulous, misunderstood weirdoes like me. :)