Jenny and Erin

First impressions matter. Although we often deny it - good or bad they matter - in the short term. I love revisiting my first impressions of others and hearing theirs. So, when Erin brought up her first impressions of me when we were out walking the other day it reduced both of us to giggles so I thought it would be fun to share our first impressions of one another.

Jenny’s first impression of Erin

For years I have kept a notebook where I jot down my first impressions of people; coworkers, people I meet at parties and sometimes even store clerks. Sad, but true, Erin is one of the few people I know who does not have an entry in my first impressions notebook. You see, when I met her I was studiously trying to pretend she did not exist. Let me explain. It wasn’t Erin, per se, I was opposed to, it was the decision of my boss at the time to hire 4 full time summer interns. I was already overloaded with work, couldn’t figure out exactly how my boss planned to keep these interns busy, unconvinced that the fact that they were graduate students made a difference, and honestly wanted no part of the entire situation. After vocally expressing my concerns I had been relieved of supervising three of the four interns and Erin was one of the three.

I know I met and orientated Erin but I have absolutely no recollection of these first meetings. I will admit that my interest was piqued when she changed her start date because she was taking an impromptu rendezvous to Greece with a special guy. (I don’t envy people much, but I do envy travel, especially romantic travel!) However, I do not remember hearing details about her trip after she started, as I didn’t go out of my way to seek her out (wow, I sound like a jerk but it really was self-preservation on my part).

No, my first impression of Erin came nearly a month into her internship. I was walking past her “office” (due to space constrictions she was being housed in a refurbished bathroom, the toilet had been removed and a desk was installed, but it still had a mirror covering one entire wall and a toilet paper holder…nice) and on a whim decided to stop and say hi. When I walked in with my big hello there was Erin playing around on the Internet. She turned crimson (it is never very hard to tell what Erin is thinking) and quickly minimized the screen. In that moment I felt so sorry for her. She was stuck in a converted bathroom 40 hours a week with only her reflection staring back at her. I was also pretty positive she was being given nothing at all to do with her time. I couldn’t help myself, she looked so well, guilty…and started laughing. I soon came to find out she was very bright, quite witty, a chatterbox slowly dying of boredom and more than willing to work on whatever I could find.

Well, that’s it, my first impression of Erin. Take it for what it is worth.

Related Posts:
How I Found Jesus, My First Impressions of Jesus

This entry was posted in Miscellaneous on Monday, June 18th, 2007 by Jenny. You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.