This is not today’s prompt, but I finally decided how I’d answer it…; -)

First impressions are just another name for the masks we wear. Why do we wear them?

We wear them because we’ve been trained, conditioned by society’s gatekeepers (our parents, teachers, social, religious, and political leaders) to be transactional. Show (give the impression) to any and everyone on our first meeting that we are acceptable in their circles, workplaces, or even ‘close relationships’.

But, first impressions are rarely, if ever, accurate portraits of who we really are. The only ones whose first impressions are ‘real’ are those who don’t try to create a ‘good’ first impression or even worry about it. In other words, they just act naturally, unconsciously, without ANY premeditation or artifice. They are secure in who they are even though all our conditioning, indoctrination, and ‘eduction’ are meant to drive that self awareness and security of our identity from us. Keep us meek, servents, and consumers in the capitalist caste system…

How many of us would like it to be known that our mask was to fool people into thinking that 1, we actually like them, 2, that we’d like to wage-slave under their scrutiny, 3, expect to someday live with them happily ever after, or anything similar… Or that we actually find many of them boring, or even idiotic…

Even trying to make a ‘good first impression’ is, in my opinion, a lie, a deception, just another mask.

These are my humble opinions. Take them or not as you will (perhaps with a grain of salt…)

–LE