Even though there are thousands of clichés about the great importance of first impressions, I think what’s really important is how you feel about someone once you have gotten to know them. I believe in the power of second impressions.
Throughout my life I have met many people, but unlike most, the people who have come to mean the most me have also been the ones that gave me the worst first impressions. In fact, I didn’t like them at all. It was only after I got to know who they really were that I became best friends with them.
The first time that I made this mistake was in the seventh grade. There was a girl who sat at my lunch table who hardly ever talked, her shyness and inability to carry a conversation made it seem that she was somewhat stand-offish. Because of this I concluded that a friendship with this shy girl named Katie would be impossible. But because of mutual friends and sitting together every day for lunch, I always found myself around her. After about a year and a half of being around her all the time, we were still no more than acquaintances. Then one day, completely out of the blue, we found something that we had in common with each other. It was something so small, but it sparked our first real conversation, and we instantly formed a great friendship. Now I always look back on how I used to feel about Katie, and it seems so strange that I ever felt like I could never be her friend. To this day we still laugh about our first impressions of each other and I am so glad that she was able to make the always important, second impression.
After this I’ve met friends whose first impressions include; bossy, a liar, and I even thought that one was way too cool to be my friend, when in fact she had just moved here. My experiences with nearly all my best friends have shown me that it is impossible to always understand people completely just by their first impression. This is why I believe so strongly in the power of second chances, of second impressions.