Impressions VS. Impressing

While both of these appear to be the same word, albeit the last couple of letters, they are in fact very different. I was recently hanging out with some new and old friends...always a nice mix...and the whole idea of first impressions was brought up. What happened was, I was at my house with a couple of people.. some who knew my parents.. some who didn't. At one point my father walks out onto the porch and says hello. Greetings are exchanged and some one says something to him like - oh..you have to impress the old lady (meaning my mother). He proceeds to say...yeah.. after 30 years I really need to impress her (insert sarcastic facial expression here).

Anyway, while this thought pissed me off momentarily...It helped me to tap into a very common misunderstanding. People often say that first impressions are everything. But when all is said and done, how often are you yourself when you're making a first impression? If I had to venture a guess I would say 60% of the time every time (sorry...that was too easy). Why is this?

Me personally, I don't think I have an off button...period. I have more energy than most third world countries...but that is neither here nor there. My advice to you...do not sugar coat yourself upon first meeting people. You have to believe that people genuinely want to get to know other people. That becomes increasingly difficult as you get older but you have to maintain a positive outlook.

And now...in order to tie this into the grand theme of this blog, we have to talk about impressing. Again...while these are pretty much the same word.. it's amazing how completely different they are.

I'm going to make this very easy.

Impression= the real you (one would hope) with no BS.
Impressing= Often times playing the part of who you think the person you're meeting would want to meet and therefore acting like someone completely opposite of you.

And here is the moral of this story...and this is completely original here:

"Rather than wasting your time impressing people, make it a point to make a good impression."