What Did You Think Of Your Best Friend When You Met Them?

Back last June I challenged myself to something I didn’t do at all, and now I really regret it.

Here’s my post that I talked about it: The Perception of Your First Greeting

I challenged myself to write down my first impressions of people from my first greeting. I did this with two people and it’s so fascinating now to go back and look at what those initial thoughts were of the person – some wrong and some scarily spot on.

I’ve met some of my best friends in Austin. As usual, though, it’s about impossible for me to remember what my thoughts were when I first met them.

Maybe thoughts isn’t the right word. I can piece together some thoughts that I had from that time. It’s the ability of being able to see people without any background knowledge of who they are. When you look at your best friends, it’s weird to think of them having ever been strangers. It’s weird to think that at one time you guys shook hands for the first time (physically or proverbially speaking).

Writing down a short bit on your first impression of someone is something that has it’s benefit in that when you go back and read that a year or years later, you’re transported back in time to what seems like the “good ole’ days.” Or maybe they weren’t even good, but in any case, they take you to a time that’s hard to remember specifics unless you are prompted by something.

But you’ll find that when you have something that you wrote from a time in your past, you are almost magically put back into the shoes of the person you used to be. And maybe that’s the real aim of this challenge. Not writing down of your first impressions of others to remember about them, but to remember who you were at the time. How you thought and understood others.

So maybe the question should really be, what did you think of you when you met your best friend?