Who is the real me?

@GreenMoo (11834)
March 5, 2011 6:57am CST
I've been on a course for the last few weeks, where noone knew me at all. So when I arrived, everyone assumed that the person they met was the person that I am all the time. Which was absolutely right. But what if I'd fancied a change? I could have dyed my hair, worn green sparkly eyeshadow and jangly earings and a completely different style of dress. I could have adopted an accent, a different style of speech, a whole different persona ... and everyone would have assumed that was the real me. Perhaps, eventually, that would have become the real me. Have you ever taken the opportunity to change your image or persona when meeting new people? Did you keep it up? If, like most of us, you haven't, would you like to? What would you change? just for a little while, for the fun, or forever?
1 person likes this
12 responses
@p1kef1sh (45681)
5 Mar 11
Ooh now that's an interesting one. I have certainly adopted foreign accents on the telephone. But a physical change? Hmm - well no I suppose that I haven't really. I think that women can be more chameleon like than men as you can wear different makeup, change and colour your hair and adapt your dress appropriately (or inapporpriately). Men can do smart, casual and sloppy but not much else. If I were to change I'd like to be an "emo" - the boys that wear their jeans half way down their bottoms sharing their underpants with the rest of us. I hate the look, but it would be interesting to see just how someone can walk and remain comfortable with their backside on display!
1 person likes this
@GreenMoo (11834)
5 Mar 11
I'd like to see that too P1kef1sh, so do give us a shout if you ever decide to go ahead! I agree with you that women have more scope for image change. I do wish I'd thought of it whilst I was still on the course as it's not really that often that you get to meet a bunch of people who know nothing about you. There's been various experiments to find out if blondes really do have more fun, but what about those with dreadlocks, or all in pastels and pearls?
@p1kef1sh (45681)
5 Mar 11
Was it all a sea of dungarees and birkenstocks? LOL.
@GreenMoo (11834)
5 Mar 11
One set of dreads out in a group of nearly 20, and a far higher average age than you might think! Not a birkenstock in sight!
1 person likes this
• United States
21 Aug 11
No! It is a form of lying and I have no patience for liars! For most of my life I have been so shy No one really got to know the Real me. I used to like being invisible. But now? I am more the Real me. I speak up and I am less shy. The only people who wuld be shocked are the people I went to school with and I don;t see them.
• United States
22 Aug 11
I guess I am not that complex. I have only one side. For years I thought No one wanted to know the real me so I didn't let the real me show. and because I look one way many assumed I was a teacher in waiting so something like that Wrong! So I don't understand having two or more sides. It isn't that I'm denying anything , I just don't have anymore sides.
@GreenMoo (11834)
22 Aug 11
I don't agree with you that it's lying. We each have many aspects of our personality, but some get suppressed as we grow up and then it becomes increasingly hard to let them show. So letting these aspects show wouldn't be lying, just allowing a different side to show.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63194)
• United States
9 Mar 11
In 10th grade, age 14, I decided I hated myself and if I were going to survive I was going to have to I liked. I changed the way I started dressing, changed my hair style and did my best to change the way I acted. It was the HARDEST thing I ever did. I am still working on it 43 years later, but I have to say that I liked myself much better after I did it. And I changed so much that when I returned to the school I had left 2 years before, it took a while before they realized who I was. They discovered I wasn't the easy target I had been a couple of years before. And, when I took those personality tests after years of work, they were all surprised to discover I was an introvert!
@GreenMoo (11834)
13 Jun 11
It's taken me a log time to get to it, but that's a really amazing story. Thanks for sharing it.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
5 Mar 11
I've dyed my hair, used an accent, used colored contacts to change my hair color. I don't think it would have been good to do for very long. Esp. if someone started talking to me in the language the other accent was. Now if I used another USA accent, that might work, but not one involving another accent since I have an American accent in French. I don't know any other language either. It was fun for awhile. Esp. in my elevator shoes, to not be my short self for a while.
@GreenMoo (11834)
5 Mar 11
Using another accent might lead to some embarrassing questions if it turned out you couldn't speak the language concerned!
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
5 Mar 11
Yes, it might be better just to change the pitch and tone of voice. I can speak French, but with an American accent, that wouldn't work either. But if I didn't speak the language like if I sounded Spanish, that would indeed be very bad. Take care
@Hatley (163781)
• Garden Grove, California
5 Mar 11
hi greenmoo I think really we are never the person we were even five years ago but you mean actually change your style and hence your personality maybe. I have not changed much but lately have learned to be more assertive but still pretty much myself. oddly now I am me not my son's mom or my husband's wife. I am a widow and am nore or less on my own here at Gold crest. I mean I a m finally known for being myself not an adjunct to a family member. I always hated it when someone said oh yes you are Robbie's mom or you are Garland's wife not oh you are Patsie Hatley. nope I was just an adjunct. lol lol
@p1kef1sh (45681)
5 Mar 11
The Boss took both our names and so she's double barrelled. I'm just me though.
@GreenMoo (11834)
5 Mar 11
That's one of the reasons I never used my husband's surname.
@Lore2009 (7378)
• United States
6 Mar 11
I used to have my hair long up to my butt and I had it dyed also.. I even wore a lot of make up back then. Eventually the make up didn't last too long and I lessened to my comfort. I've also chopped my hair off and stopped coloring it. I always like to change my look but to my comfort.
@GreenMoo (11834)
6 Mar 11
these days my look is based around ease and comfort. But I just wonder how people would react to me if I did something else. Would people assume i was a different person if I presented myself in a different way?
@Lore2009 (7378)
• United States
7 Mar 11
I guess some would, if you were always carrying a certain style.. and then bam! you do something super dramatic.
@jillhill (37354)
• United States
5 Mar 11
Well I am older so I guess I could suddenly become a sexy young chick! LOL..try to attract some fellow and lead him on. I like who I am....I know though that people form an opinion of you without really seeing you or getting to know you...I have met several of my friends here from mylot...what do they all say when they meet me? You look so young! LOL...yup! strange!
@GreenMoo (11834)
6 Mar 11
I guess there are a few folk here who wouldn't mind losing a few years! I think my interest here was to see how other people would react to me if I looked different.
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
5 Mar 11
I think many people must take advantage of that when they move to a different place. I know I did, when I moved here four years ago. I decided to become more outgoing and less focused on negative things. I'd done that the previous two years but made an extra effort. My neighbors here do not know of my past or that I ever think any negative thoughts. It helps to keep my life positive!
@GreenMoo (11834)
5 Mar 11
A new start in a new place is a great opportunity to become the person we'd like to be. Or, in truth, the person we've been all along but who has become bogged down. I hope you didn't opt for the green sparkly eyeshadow though?!
@katsmeow1213 (28719)
• United States
5 Mar 11
I tend to present the real me all the time. I see no reason in trying to become someone I'm not. I'd rather be judged for who I am than be judged for who I'm not.
@GreenMoo (11834)
5 Mar 11
The idea of not doing so never really dawned on me until I left the course. Then someone commented that they remembered someone else's wife because she is very zany looking and I wondered if I'd be able to carry off the persona that went with the sparkly green eyeshadow myself.
@piya84 (2581)
• India
6 Mar 11
You are alien from Mars
@GreenMoo (11834)
6 Mar 11
What is the saying? Ah, it takes one to know one. I'm happy to be in such great company!
@SIMPLYD (90727)
• Philippines
6 Mar 11
I have never thought of keeping my identity as some other else. I don't know, but i guess i just don't want to be branded as somebody when i am not actually like that.
@GreenMoo (11834)
6 Mar 11
I would like to see if people treat me differently if I present myself differently. Just curiosity.
@inertia4 (27961)
• United States
5 Mar 11
I am who I am but I am calculated when it comes to having a conversation with different people. I tend to not trust people right away and like to get to know them before they get to see the real me. There are those few people that I can trust right off the bat and I will be myself with them. I never tried to change my appearance because this his how I look, take me as I am. Yes I cut my hair but that's it. Like I said before, I am who I am.
@GreenMoo (11834)
5 Mar 11
It just struck me that it might be fun to change my appearance when meeting new people, just to see how it felt! I like the way I am, but I've never been an outrageous hairstyle, zippy green eyeshadow sort of person.