First Impression Faith

I've been meeting a lot of people over the past couple months. Classmates, co-workers... and I've been finding out a lot about myself in the process. Just talking to people reveals that I apparently come across very differently at first from how I really am. People tag me with being this way or that way, and half the time they're waaaay off. I am amused and mystified by it.

A. (and I think I've said this one before) I apparently look way older than I really am. Pete and Tyler thought I was 21. My co-workers Bryan and Curtis and Shane all thought I was 20. Kristin wouldn't even tell me how old she thought I was(not a very good sign, if you ask moi).

2! People are tagging me as the kind of girl who listens to classical music only. I don't have a problem being tagged for listening to classical music, but... only classical music?? Where did that come from?? Its pretty far from the real me. I'm pretty much pop/hip hop usually, with swing, Celtic, rock, and classical interspersed, and just a little bit of country every few weeks. So... only classical? Nope. That's pretty far from the truth. Sorry people. Good try, though.

D. Curtis said I probably wouldn't like his motorcycle because he doesn't think I'm that kind of girl. Huh. I wonder why that is. I have never been on a motorcycle before, but I would love to try it someday. Mi padre used to have a motorcycle, and supposedly he would take us on rides when we were really little (back when we lived on 8th street in Moscow). I wish I could remember that. My memory just won't stretch back that far, though. The only solution, therefore, is to buy a motorcycle for my husband and make him take me on rides. That would be awesome! Haha!

Third, people tag me as being "sportsy". (...whatever that means.) I'm not. I cannot play volleyball or ultimate Frisbee for the life of me. I played disc golf a few months ago for the first time and almost killed Liz and Brady twice. I was so bad at it that it was hilarious. The only sport that I am good at is baseball. I played on a team when I was 12, and at the end of the year I got the award for best first baseman and best pitcher in the league. It was pretty cool. Other than that, though, I'm really bad at sports in general. I can't think fast enough or something. I prefer to watch and cheer. I'm good at cheering.

F. People think I drink coffee. Now this one I can understand. I was born hyper. When I was little my dad gave me the nickname chickita da vita de legre, or something like that. I have no idea how its spelled, really, but it means something along the lines of little party girl. That's totally me. But I don't drink coffee. I am just naturally pretty hyper. My mind cannot focus on just one thing at a time. It has to be thinking about six different things at once (I counted once, and found that I was thinking about nine things at once. It was pretty cool). But I don't drink coffee. That would probably make me fall asleep.

Seventh, I apparently have a reputation for always dancing. Us "younger kids" in my church's community started bringing swing dancing back about three years ago. It was mostly us teens who did it, but it spread pretty quickly to the pre-teens and college students and eventually to the parents when they saw us doing it. Obviously, my sisters and brothers and I were part of the original twenty kids, so we were tagged as new dancers and fast learners.
That's all fine and good, except for the "new dancer" part. I've been dancing my whole life. I started when I was two or something. I would twirl and twirl to the music my mother would put on. Eventually I learned more things to do with myself, little steps to integrate into my dances and such, but I preferred to just ... twirl. And I still do. I love to swing dance and contra dance, but I still love to twirl. There's something mind blowing in looking up at the sky and spinning. Watching the clouds going in circles, the leaves on the trees above spinning fast than I am, or so it feels. Anyhow, the point is that I've been dancing since I was a baby, basically, and it hasn't stopped.

So all that to say that the first impression Faith is often very different from how she really is. Maybe I don't show my "true self" enough. But if I were to start doing that, I would probably scare everyone away. Basically only my family and my closer high school friends have seen me without my "stupid-filter" up. It probably won't be long until my college friends see my "minus-stupid-filter" side. Poor them. They have no idea what they're getting into. Hehehe...

But the final thing that comes out in people's first impressions of me is that I'm a strong Christian. This one, obviously, makes me happy. I don't try to hide my faith, I just don't go about flouncing it all over the place either.
Of course, when people get to know me better, I don't have a problem with telling them outright that I'm a christian. At work, my fellow employees swear all the time. It makes me sad to hear that they don't care about using such base language, but its not as though I don't hear it everywhere else. There's not much I can do about it except ask them to not swear around me. And I have. And they don't. They do make the effort to respect me and not swear around me.
My no-swearing request has spread to other areas that would bother me too, and they hold back on those things without my having asked them to. The other night Bryan was laughing about something, and when I asked him what the joke was, he said he wouldn't tell me because I would be offended by it, and he didn't want to offend me. I was pleased to hear it.
So its nice to know that I do have that sort of presence. That's its obvious that I'm a christian. I suppose the difference between "them" and me is hard to miss, and they respect that difference. My life would be miserable if they didn't respect that and made work hard for me. I thank God for that they do.