I have great intuition. Don't all women? It's something that we need to survive. As dramatic as that sounds, it's true.
But my first impressions are shit.
Let me provide you with a few examples, some of which are very recent.
The guy who I thought was very charismatic and nice turned out to be stuck up and condescending.
The guy who I thought wasn't interested in being my friend and standoffish is now one of the best guys I know.
The girls who were originally very welcoming turned out to be extremely high maintenance and judgmental.
The guy who seemed like a total douchebag is actually incredibly earnest and would never intentionally hurt a fly.
The girl who I thought was snooty and uninterested in everything is actually very chill and fun to hang out with.
The professor that seemed super scary is so nice and supportive and interested in any question I have.
I realize people are never one dimensional or static characters. We all contain multitudes. No one is ever one thing. Maybe the guy I mentioned above is earnest and kind and also a douchebag; I just haven't met that side of him yet. I'm sure everyone that I referenced has their good aspects and bad qualities, just like I do. I doubt I give off a good first impression every single time I meet someone new.
So why does this make me concerned for my future travels?
Because travelling is basically a big conglomeration of first impressions. Everyone I meet will at first be a stranger. I have to trust people on how they present themselves, since I won't have much time to truly get to know them. What if I'm completely wrong about a person and have a horrible opinion of them, but never have the opportunity to have that poor opinion corrected? Or even worse, what if I think someone is fantastic and then I end up disappointed, or even worse, hurt?
Although of course, my first impressions of people are just as much of a reflection of me as it is the people I'm sizing up. I need to work on deciphering my snap judgments from a person's true character.
Who knows, maybe a bad first encounter can lead to an interesting story someday (that I will of course blog about). Just look at Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy.