First Impression

Meeting someone is a thing that everyone runs into. This happens to some on a daily basis and to others, not as often as possible. One way or the other we run into different people. Everyone has different personalities, and therefore once we meet someone, we get to see one of their many personalities being displayed.

For me, I have met people for the first time on different occasions. Some being favourable, some unfavourable and some in awkward or weird situations. Most times I've met someone and I was impressed by their response and action; I'll share one example.

There was this day I happened to meet an Internet friend in real life. We talked online for months, probably four months or more. I lived far away from her, so we were unable to meet sooner as expected.

Luckily she decided to visit her sister in the same city I was in. During her stay in the city, she told me she wanted to see me, and I agreed to meet up. I was doing some chores at home and then got a call where she said we should meet.

I described an eatery close by; she came, and we walked in together. While there, I asked what she wanted, and she said she was filled before wanting to see me. I was surprised because it's something I never expected, not from anyone. I got a snack and a drink, and instead she gets hers, thinking she was joking when she rejected it at first.

She still disagreed, saying she was filled on coming, and later agreed to take the snacks back home and share with her sister. I later agreed and got the same snacks for both of us. We sat inside the eatery, and then we had long talks.

Her action surprised me so much that I had to ask if she doesn't eat with guys on a date. Well, she clearly explained how her day had gone before agreeing to meet me. I happened to like her more for her generosity and open-mindedness. That simple action spoke a lot.

People say that first impressions matter a lot. Is this true? Is it false? That I cannot say, but I can only give my perspective on this.

To me, first impressions matter a lot. It helps you to ascertain what really is in the mind of an individual. First impressions help you know the outcome of an individual, not only towards you but also towards others.

Of course, there could be situations where the person is misunderstood seeing them for the first time, or there could be some oversight or misinterpretation of the individual; yes, these can happen. But what matters most is how they react or respond after their own realisation of what went wrong.

Concerning meeting someone and getting an impression, I've had good and bad impressions about people. I'd like to share a negative one.

Many months ago I happened to meet someone, a girl I wasn't close to back then. So, being the guy, I had to summon up courage and approach her. I asked about how she was doing and that it's been a while. She did good looking up to see who was speaking to her, and then something happened.

I asked if she had heard from our mutual friends back then when we were in high school. She suddenly got to be on her phone. I ignored it and thought perhaps it was an important message she was responding to or something. I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Later on, I realised that she wasn't even looking up to me again and was fully on her device. I later humoured her to see her response and perhaps get her attention a little. Still, she was not even listening, and to make it worse, she was giving me just a single-word response as if she was being paid to talk to me.

I suddenly felt the energy she gave and just stopped talking halfway and walked away. I later thought she'd feel bad about her action, but then she didn't. She was just into her phone until a fellow she was acquainted with walked off with her. This made me feel bad, and then I resolved to only meet or talk with those who would give back the same energy.

Unlike the terrible experience I had, people can make first impressions count positively. How? You might wonder.

First, give your full attention. When meeting someone for the first time, give them your attention; let them know you're completely listening to them and not being distracted by the environment or your device.

Second, respond accordingly. Replying with a single word like 'yes', 'no', or 'maybe' should not be accounted for except in rare circumstances. Instead say things like 'Yes, I agree with you....' or 'No, I'm not....' . Responses like this show you're deeply interested in the conversation.

Third, accept humour. Most people seem to be strict and not flexible. One thing with meeting someone for the first time is that one of them might have humour. In fact, to make a conversation enjoyable for the first time, humour has to set in. So yes, people need to have or appreciate humour, at least to a certain degree. This allows room for small laughs and smiles in a conversation. So these are my thoughts on this subject.