face time

We were talking at work today about the “mean girl” syndrome. One of the coaches recently read about a lateral study that proved the mean girls in elementary school are the same mean girls in adulthood. Once they discover the mean way of dealing with people they never change. Bitches. I’m not a mean girl, but I am a shy girl and so I occasionally get mistaken for a snobby girl. I remember a good friend of mine finally breaking under my incessant barrage of questions about how I was perceived by other people and telling me that I have this habit of looking at people out of the corner of my eye that makes me look like a bitch. He also added that the fact that my eyes are big as saucers doesn’t help. But, I appreciated his honesty. How we are perceived by others is rarely what we expect and, for the most part, out of our control. Sure, we can dress a certain way, speak a certain way, read certain books and watch certain films; but just try and change your concentration face or your walking-up-the-street face, or your standing-at-the-bus-stop body language…you can’t. It’s the true reflection of you and unfortunately it doesn’t always translate clearly to other people. My mum has this great thing she used to say to me sometimes when I was younger - usually in a group of kids, maybe I didn't like one of them, she'd say, "Careful, your face is showing."

How often does your face show? And, what's it saying?