The Third Impression

“It’s the first impression that will open or close doors for you.”

This statement says it all. A good first impression will get you through the metaphorical door to success. Today’s world is a standing testament to this adage. We wake up in the morning, wear our best clothes, go out the door with a huge smile on our facial façade and hope to God that it will get us the one thing which we have been taught to run after, a laudable first impression. And then hopefully it will be a smoother ride home.

I feel that the ‘first impression’ is way too over-rated. Everybody think of themselves as some kind of psych analysts and start judging people on the basis of their first impressions. They don’t even give it a thought that may be a person is more than what they appear at first. Everyday tens of hundreds of people face the same harsh scrutiny; they face the same fear of losing everything at stake right at the outset. Can’t we all accept the fact that maybe a person could be better judged on the base of the second impression, or even the third one? No, we don’t. Its way too much to ask of us stone headed imbeciles. After all who wants to give a person, having such a horrible first impression a second look?

This piece of writing is titled the ‘Third Impression’ and some of you might already be yawning since until now I have said nothing about it. Just another example of the first impression shortcoming. I cant help it because I am, and always have been a third impression guy. Life’s has never been a walk in the park for me or many others like me. We have always been under-appreciated and chucked out of the ‘we-are-so-awesome’ club.

Without more of the generalizations and satires, I would like to dwell into what seems to b e an outlandish concept of third impressionists. I have always been a bulky guy and to top it I was raised to the peril of introvertiveness. So in simple words I was intimidating and kept to myself. Now you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to guess the kind of first impression I always made – snobbish brute. I rarely remember anyone meeting me for the first time and getting along with me instantly. I have always had to work hard for the second glance. Slowly I climbed up to the stage of college life and my worst fears climbed up with me. I was sure to be outcast of the clan and I was sure that the day I would pass out of the college no-one would ever remember a shy, silent guy who always lurked in the shadows of the limelight. That was when I found a bunch of daring people who took mustered up some courage to give me the second chance. But soon I discovered that even the second chance wouldn’t work for an introvert like me. So I lost some of those daring guys based on the second impression.

I was distraught with hopelessness and misery, which I thought would haunt me even in my happiest of dreams. But life had different plans for me. Many of those daring guys turned out to be of caring sort too. And finally I got my third chance. In hindsight I consider myself to be the third time lucky. And more importantly I found my niche, along with the knowledge that there will always be some people who would be willing to give you the third chance. And as they say, the rest is history. I managed to get appreciated by those around me, I no longer feared the limelight, and most important of them all – I found a bunch of people whom I could call friends for life.

After having ranted on for God knows how long I have a feeling that the readers would be looking for the trademark ‘pearl of wisdom’ and I will give it to them. In this fast paced life, where people don’t have time to say hello to the people they care about, there is still some hope for us, the third impressionists. Sooner or later people would wake up to us; they will realize our true worth. Someone would come along and say that smiling ‘hello’ and in turn we will reciprocate with a smile filled with gratitude; for they will believe that there is a real person behind the intimidating and seemingly self-absorbed exterior. It is very easy to lose your heart but all it takes for us to get back on the horses is just one leap of faith.