There’s nothing quite like a fresh, new beginning that comes to you in the prime of your life.  I’m talking about college.  College is an amazing idea; allow late teens to continue their education in a more intellectually charged, independent atmosphere but more importantly, give these kids a clean slate to start with (that is, give them this one chance to be whomever they wish to be).  I attended my orientation at the University of Texas today.  I chose to be a farmer-turned-model working to get his pilot’s license.

If there is nothing quite like a fresh, new beginning in one’s peak years then it would also be true that there is nothing quite like a girl behind you in line who doesn’t not talk for 35 minutes.  The double-negative was necessary there because it does not describe the heinous act to say that she was talking the entire time.  Lots of people word it that way; “He literally talked through the entire date”.  Wrong, you had dinner, he must have eaten. I don’t believe you.  Thus, I must phrase this girl’s activity as not not talking for more than a half hour.

She had this thick west Texas accent.  I have lived in Texas my entire life and this still bugged me.  She would comment to her South-will-rise-again boyfriend on really any subject.  The fly which had invaded the academic center, the people in front of us in line who spent too much time walking to the registrar’s counter and the “lady-bag” the guy immediately in front of her was wearing.  I was immediately in front of her.  It’s a stylish messenger bag.  I live near a large city, I have to be stylish.

I thought about explaining that to her but refrained from doing so.

This got me to thinking about first impressions.  I mean, at a school of sixty-thousand, her single offensive remark doesn’t really matter.  But if she and I were to have a class or two together, she has already given herself a slight handicap. (I say “slight” because I’m so modest.  Not befriending me is a social and academic kiss of death — the handicap would be unbearable, she would have to transfer.)  So she was wrong to have blown her first chance to impress me, right?  But what if that meant putting a restraint on her personality and natural loquaciousness?

If the back-t0-back rhetorical questions weren’t clear enough, the conflict is this: blowing a first impression while being yourself or try to impress at the cost of your personality and identity.

I suppose I’ve already made my decision.  I feel like I need say very little.

 

 

Liar, Liar.