First impressions

I was just wondering what to blog about today when I read Bold.Blue.Adventure and got some inspiration! At the bottom of the a post about first impressions she said "so how about you? Any good stories about first impressions either online or in person?".

Normally my first instinct would be to put something in the comments of that post, but I as I thought that this was too good an opportunity I am going to write about it myself!! (How else am I going to get some inspiration!?)

We all know just how important first impressions can be, in fact I try very hard not to dislike someone just because of a first impression as I could be wrong! Although sometimes I just know that I am never going to like someone! (For instance, there is a male cleaner where I work and he just....ewgh...gets all my hackles up and I know that this is not going to change!).

Sometimes however, you get to find out what other people's first impression of you was! Fortunately, despite the first impression, Mandy is now one of my closest friends even though I don't see much of her these days as I have moved about two hundred miles away! Anyway, I don't know how the conversation came about but she said that her first impression of me was of someone who blew hot and cold - friendly one day and stand-offish the next.

Of course, you have to know me to understand why as Mandy found out - when she found out the reason she said it was like a light bulb went on in her head! The reason that I appear friendly one day and snooty the next is because I am deaf - if Mandy was speaking to me and I could see her then I would be all friendly and chatty like I usually am, but if Mandy was talking to me while my attention was on something else then I would appear to ignore her because I hadn't realised that she was talking to me! This often happened if there was a large group conversation going on and I was trying to make sure that I knew what was going on!

If you didn't know that I was deaf then I can quite understand how that impression could be made, and it horrifies me to think that I appear rude sometimes!! These days when I am giving presentations to large groups I tend to state up front that I am deaf and make a bit of a joke about ignoring people! Having said that, I am not about to introduce myself as "Hi, my name is Sam and I am deaf" because being deaf is not something that everybody needs to know, particularly if I am never likely to meet them again!

But sometimes, I have to be more upfront than usual - just this afternoon there was someone in the ladies loo brushing her hair (probably for an interview or something) and as I was washing my hands, she said something. So, I did what I normally do and said pardon and made sure that I was looking at her, but as she was brushing her hair it was a bit awkward, so I said straight out that I was deaf and then we had a short conversation about the horrible rain that we've been having! Now, I am never likely to meet this woman again, but it was one of those situations where I had to say something or look like the bitch from hell!!

As you can see, this is waaaay too long a comment to inflict on the Bold.Blue.Adventure blog! But do go and have a look at where it all started and I do plan to leave a comment on that blog telling her to come and have a look-see!