Have you ever looked a picture of yourself and asked something along the line of, “is that what I look like?” Is it true that pictures don’t lie? Then I guess mirrors are deceptive. Or is my mind playing tricks on me? I have this theory that we don’t see ourselves as others see us. My theory goes beyond the physical.
In recent days and months I have been described as a perfectionist (gasp! not me!), quirky (the person who said this is head of the quirky is us club so I don’t give it much credence) and then as recent as yesterday someone said I am resilient. I must say this one has me perplexed even more than the others. Resilient…in my mind, resilient is what you call an object that can withstand being tossed around not lose its shape or form, like a tennis ball.
I believe the dictionary is my friend so I looked up the word resilient. It is defined as springing back, rebounding, returning to the original form or position after being bent, compressed or stretched. The word buoyant was also used in the description. The definition of buoyant is cheerful and optimistic. Now that is a word I can identify with.
Back to my theory…
If you made a list of 10 adjectives that describe you and had family, friends and foes do the same, how many common words would you find on the lists? I can tell you perfectionist, quirky and resilient would never had made it on my list.
A few months ago, after being encouraged/harassed by a friend, I joined a popular dating site. I did not walk away with a love connection but I did develop my theory and lots of supportive data. On the site I joined, you develop a self profile. What I was able to determine in a short amount of time is people wrote one thing but their lives didn’t necessarily reflect those words. Now being the buoyant person that I am, I chose to believe they weren’t being deceptive, but they believed what they saw in the mirror and had not taken a recent snapshot of their lives.
As I take a look at me from the perspective of other people, I still am not sure that I am resilient. I just press on in spite of obstacles and choices and circumstances. When I make it through to the other side of stretching situations, I hope the experience does not leave me the same but better. Resilient? Not really. Pliable? Definitely.