branding

“Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.” - Epictetus
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how many times do we get to have first impressions?

i’d say in this world, more than once. in my experience, about twice or thrice.

when i started blog reading last year, i have always had a sort of mental image of how bloggers look and how they are in real life. that’s mostly based on what and how they write. sometimes i base it on their profile image. i pictured one as being short, stocky and witty. the other one tall, athletic and serious. another matured, wise and geeky looking. or maybe lanky and sarcastic. sometimes i let my imagination run wild on how i think they would be like in person.

but then, when i started writing and had the courage to connect with some of the bloggers i’ve met here, these impressions changed. from im, text and phone calls. perceptions of people actually change once the interaction with them gets, well, interactive. the way they speak, the sound and tone of their voices change the impression that i had when i was only reading them.

the most interesting part though is when i actually got to personally meet some of the people i’ve come to know here. i realized how different they are from their online personas. different in a sense that i got to see a larger part of their personality and their being. and it’s nice to say that some i got to keep as friends, offline. which is good actually because the very reason i started writing here was not only to express my thoughts, but also, to expand my network of people.

so far, despite the different and changing first impressions i’ve had with the people here, i could say all of these were good. people here are a wonderful mix. some quirky, some typical but all are amazing.