Article writing the first impression is not the last impression
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Answer: “First impression is the last impression.” Is it though? It’s one of the many cliches that I don’t relate to. As far as my experience has been concerned first impression is always the wrong one. I have over the time become acquainted with many people or even became friends with many later on whom I couldn’t even stand the first time I met. For me it’s always been the other way round. Those who came across as really snobbish or arrogant at first turned out to become one of my closest friends and those who I deemed to be really nice and amicable people were the ones who taught me how to hate someone. It could also mean I’m probably not good at judging people at first. For me just an initial acquaintance isn’t enough to form an appropriate or a spot on opinion about them. But in my defense I have in the past managed to leave a totally wrong impression on others as well. A few of my close friends who met me the first time judged me as an obnoxious and an arrogant person, which is by the way anyone but me. I’m probably the second most non-arrogant person I have ever known in my life. But then again there have been people who actually had an accurate so called first impression of mine; to whom I came across as a friendly, exuberant person. The point being that the first impression might not be that important after all!
I believe it is not at all prudent to form an opinion about someone just on the basis of their “first impression” on you. For all we know that person who came across as a rude and grumpy guy/girl could be having a really bad day. That one kid in the class who doesn’t talk much or socialize doesn’t mean he/she lacks confidence. Probably he/she is way too smart for the rest of the class to relate or talk to on an equal level. Likewise that one person who talks too much or jokes around all the time does in no way means is the dense one, that one hell of a talkative person might be a real deep thinker in his/her solitary confinement. We all have known people in our lives, the one’s who are quite closer to us, who weren’t the persons we first thought them to be. They were a complete contrast and probably left a lot of room to question this so called “First impression” cliche. Why in the first place is this first impression of such importance anyway? Simply because we are judgmental. We like to judge people even without trying to know them. The moment we are being introduced to a person, in our head we start judging them on the various levels; the way they dress, talk, walk, or even the way they laugh. This very core need of judging everything and everyone around us forces us to believe that we must have a solid first impression of that someone we just met. We then on the basis of our very limited knowledge and understanding of the human behavior form a solid opinion about them. Which in the crux means we give the verdict without hearing the case!
Another thing I have noticed is that a single person won’t have the same and uniform first impression on everyone they meet. As I quoted my example earlier, to few of my friends my first impression was of being an arrogant person whereas for the rest I was a happy-go-lucky person. Apart from the different way of seeing things and reading people’s behavior of my friends this could also mean that I acted differently in either cases which allowed them to form two different opinions. Surprisingly those who thought I was arrogant are the one’s who came across as haughty to me the first time I met them. So probably it was my defense mechanism that put up that psychological shield around me in order to avoid those arrogant people that in turn made ME look like one. And those who thought I was a happy and a friendly person were the one’s who omitted positive energies and made me comfortable around them hence allowing me to put down my guard and be myself which in turn helped them get a better view of who I actually am! So what I deduce is that people react differently not just in different situations but around different people. If they come across someone who doesn’t make them uncomfortable and allows them to be who they really are without being judgmental, there’s a very good chance they could leave a close to accurate first impression on you. But if you put them ill at ease for whatever reason, you might not get a chance to be precise as far as forming an opinion on the basis of their first impression is concerned.
So next time when you judge a person just by the first impression that you managed to gather, remember their behavior was probably just the reaction to the way you treated them. So your first impression and their first impression are probably co-independent!