Second Impressions

A friend of mine had a posting about people forming an opinion of him, then being shocked when they got to know him better. And it got me to thinking... All of my life, I've been underestimated by people in one form or another. In college, my senior year, I took a Software Engineering course. For our midterms, we had 10 essay questions to choose from, and we had to do 7 of them. The GTA graded certain ones, and the profressor graded the remainder. To save time, they split the papers up, and then swapped. As they were swapping, the TA asked how they were. "Well, the people we expected to do not so well did not so well, and the people we expected to do well did well, but there was one significant suprise." "Schuyler" "Yeah!! he did _really_ well!!!" So I guess I was in the "expected to do not so well" category.

Sometimes being underestimated is a nice thing. Like the above. They were a little suprised at my performance and were possibly even a little more forgiving with the grading. There are times when being underestimated is a hinderance. Like, in your job. You're given crap assignments, or menial tasks, always playing second fiddle to someone who may or may not be more deserving than you are. Passsed over for choice opportunities because you didn't stick out in your superior's eyes. That is, until you stand out more and more because you are competent. But it's a slow going usually.

OK So by now you're thinking that this post is about me being down on myself, thinking that I've been passed over for things my whole life, but it's not. It's more about how people form quick opinions about lots of things. "You don't get a second chance to form a first impression" is sooooo true. But honestly, what I've found, is more often than not, once I've gotten over my first impression of someone/something, I like my second impression much better. So this post is really about keeping an open mind, even after you've made an opinion on an issue. Don't let prejudices and "judgments after a minimal supply of facts" rule your life. I guarantee you'll be happier. :-)