Okay. I know you guy(s) are probably tired of me writing like I'm some new thinker, some philosopher with untraveled roads. I don't know... Maybe I am in the sense that I've reached the roads differently than you all and all the other "true" philosophers have. But I can't help wishing someone will just....just hear me out and think "Wow... This girl's on to something..." But that'll probably be the next post I'll type out in 10 or whatever minutes.
Anyhow. My title. I was thinking about my profile picture on here and on Facebook (they're the same picture). It's a bust picture (or so I'm deeming it, at least): meaning, it's a picture of my shoulders/chest area and up. You just see my face and whatever leeway I give underneath my face. To me, that's the prett"iest" part about me. (I'm using today's jargon for "beauty." My apologies for falling in with it for the moment... :/ )
This isn't to be a horn-blower for myself or anything. But it's my truth... My hair is pretty, my eyes are an appealing color, and, despite being somewhat oblong for symmetry, my face is pleasant. Again, I'm not trying to brag. x.x The Dear Lord knows I'm not. But I'm saying, compared to the rest of me, I find my face the most attractive part.
Anyway. Back to what I was saying. With the pictures I take of myself, I show people only what I want them to see: a pretty face without the otherwise "unattractive body." (We are ignoring the philosophy and definitions of "beauty" and "true beauty" for this post.)
Are first impressions any different than my pictures?
I mean,... I show you only what I want you to see: the part I think is most attractive. In the particular picture I have for this profile, I have make-up to make my eyes stand out, my hair is done and up, and I'm dressed more nicely than usual. And! I'm only showing the upper third of myself... So the first impression I want you to have of me is a pretty, fashion sensible girl that is cheerful and innocent and thoughtful.
Like first impressions, some of that is probably correct. But how much is exaggerated? That's when you get a full picture and find out the make-up made my eyes pop, I usually don't brush my hair, and I stick to jeans from Goodwill and well-worn t-shirts that might even be 2 sizes too big. And the full picture of my personality? Well, I'm still working on that myself. But if you get to know me, you realize that maybe I'm not so cheerful or innocent or thoughtful. But maybe there are the times that I can be. Or maybe I'm just completely fake.
I don't know. I guess I'm writing because I've epiphanized (that's not a word but I like it!) that, to me, first impressions are like pictures that people take of themselves. They hand out these first impressions like business cards with their photos on them, saying "I'm like this, I look like this, this is who I am" but then it's after we have taken that photo into our photo albums (or our lives) and that's when we find out that they're not entirely the same as we thought.
This isn't to say we love them less or respect them less or whatever. It's just to say that first impressions are like self-taken photographs.
Well, I guess that's it for this post. :)
*M
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