November
4, 2002
five minute li: entry for the if
project
Listening to: From Autumn To Ashes - Eulogy For
An Angel
Reading: Einstein: A Life by Denis
Brian
---
If you have five minutes to make
an impression on someone you are
meeting for the first time, what will
they see? How closely does the image
you project reflect the inner you?
---
I carry a notebook and a pen with me wherever I go just so my thoughts don't fly out the window unwritten. When we first meet I may be writing. I read a lot too, whether in a cafe or on a bench. I may be immersed in a book when you first meet me.
I might be sitting in silence, or giving a comment, cursing, laughing with a friend. I may also be playing with a stray cat, drinking coffee, observing people, or listening to music.
I almost never wear makeup. If I do you'd barely catch it. A little bit of brown on the eyelids or some strawberry lipgloss, usually. Clotheswise, I wear a lot of unskimpy tops, pants, long skirts, mainly dark colours, creams, beiges and whites. I have no piercings anywhere. I like to wear beads and bandannas.
I'm almost never on the cellphone in public.
All of those facts may somewhat contribute to your first, fleeting impression of me.
Then, when we do strike up a conversation, it'll usually be about a mutual interest or to discuss an issue, or to ask a question. Maybe it'd stem from a compliment, one that I give or one from you.
Maybe we'd talk about animals, books, poets, authors, frappucinos, writing, art, music. Usually we'd just swap comebacks. But really, who knows?
You may ask me where I went, because of my accent (which is really just fluency in English, minus the 'lahs' and the 'lors' and collage of many languages). And I'll tell you I've never stepped foot out of this country long enough to adopt one. But apparently, I have an accent nonetheless. People tend to judge me the wrong way because of it.
So that's what you get. I have never faked a laugh, or used a line, or flipped my hair, winked suggestively, and most importantly pretended to like something they liked just so they'd want to know me better. Certainly this fact is stressed the most, not only in this collaboration but in all entries for this month's ifproject.
Most often with people that approach me, or people that I approach, we hit it off. Then when we say goodbyes and walk away, one of us realises that we didn't exchange names, let alone any form of contact number, and by the time we want to, it'd be too late. Either I'm gone, or you are.
It happens every time. It must be my bad memory. Then again, all the previous persons didn't do anything either.
The truth about first impressions is that they're almost always inaccurate. But if they do turn out that way, I won't be the cause of it. Lill the Five Minute Version is as faithful to Lill The Big Picture as it can be, despite all the limitations imposed upon it.