Monday, August 15, 2011

Perceptions



How people see us, and how we really are can be so very different.

I seem to give off an aura of being very prim and proper and somewhat standoffish. More than one person has told me that before they really got to know me they thought I was pretty stuck up. Once people know me that's not how they see me at all. Then they describe me as a free-spirit - fun, outgoing, and funny.

Somehow the "me" I am showing to the world is not the "me" I am inside. I am always open to new friends and new experiences. I do need to get to know people a little before I completely open myself up, and give total trust, but there's a big span between that and unapproachable.

One of my former boyfriends said the day he first met me he thought, "the chance for rejection was extremely high," that there was no chance I would even give him the time of day - that I had an aura about me of being off-limits. He did approach me. I was interested. He didn't think it such a bad thing that I had an aura of being off-limits once he was the boyfriend - he thought it was pretty fabulous then.

I think of myself as very friendly, but apparently that's not the image I give out to the world. I'm open to new people in my life - who doesn't want more friends? Somehow I need to figure out how to present that to the world instead of what I'm sending out.

2 comments:

Judith said...

I have no idea who is telling you that you are unapproachable. They must be insecure idiots. (Sorry if that sounds harsh.)

When I first met you, you seemed confident, self-assured, poised, and friendly. Open and full of life.

As I get to know you better, I see nothing, NOTHING, to alter that opinion.

People's perceptions are colored more by their own feelings, than by your aura.

"Beauty (or any other attribute) is in the eye of the beholder."

Patsy Terrell said...

You're so kind...

I think sometimes I'm a little "much" for some people. But I am what I am. :)