The Real Me

So I used to know this guy he would be like “Rodmond, I feel like every time I see you you have a new haircut or new hairstyle” LOOOL. It got me thinking like, yeah…that’s pretty true to a certain extent lol, my ‘look’ has changed so much over the years. From Justin Bieber bangs when I was really young, to spikey hair in elementary school, to buzz cut Roddy in high school. After that I learned what a fade and a proper haircut was lol, I started going to actual barbers and barbershops and experimented with like the typical combover, slick back, pompadour (the David Beckham slickback look) to even a top knot where I had a bald fade on the sides and super long on top and was able to tie a little man bun, but it’sa ctually called a top know. Then back to buzz Roddy and decided to grow my hair out again and now I have hella long hair and an actual ‘man bun’. I also dyed my hair blonde and like that definitely threw a lot of people off lol. What I’m trying to say is my look as changed a lot over the years lol. I remember when I got glasses in university, my friend was like you look more studious, like more intelligent lol. Obviously when I started getting tattoos, it gave me an ‘edgy’ look LOL, but it wasn’t super visible since it was like on my upper arms so unless I wore a tank top or rolled up my sleeve you wouldn’t really be able to see it. But now I have like 60% of one arm fully covered and that certainly adds to how people choose to perceive me. I’m gonna go ahead and say this now that this post is probably gonna be all over the place cuz I wrote a bunch of stuff down on my phone and it’s all jumbled and in random order in terms of time. I’ve def told y’all the story of when I went to this church retreat and ended up rooming with this random dude and he was like yo when I first met you I knew you had a warm personality LOOOL, first time I’ve ever heard that in my life. Most of the time, people’s first impressions of me is pretty cold and hard to approach and of course my strong rbf doesn’t help my case either and I guess maybe the tattoos can be intimidating so I hear. I remember dating this Christian girl and she’s like you know, you’re nothing like what I expected, you’re super nice and easy to talk to. And I was like lemme guess, the long blonde hair and the tattoos threw you off didn’t it LOOOL, and she’s like tbh yeah it did like I didn’t think it would work or that I would like you lol. Something I get a lot as well before people meet me is like oh I thought you didn’t talk or didn’t like me cuz you have such a stern and serious look all the time LOL. But I’d like to think that when people first meet me and have a conversation with me, within the first 5-10 minutes they usually say I’m pretty easy going and chill. I had a coworker tell me he could see me as a bouncer at a club LOOOL, I told my boys this too and I’m like yo I’m pretty short and untimidating what’re you talking about…but they’re like nah you have a really stern look and if you were serious I probs wouldn’t mess with you LOL. Ironically enough this oen kid actually asked me to be a security guard at his house party one time and I was like nah I’m not tryna get stabbed or get into a fight, I’m good. Here’s a funny thing I’ve been thinking about lately…I feel like when people haven’t met me and find out I have a blog, when they do end up meeting me I always get the feeling they expect me to be like this hella wise, Confucius kinda dude like yo gimme advice LOL. Whereas when people have met me and then they find out I have a blog, it’s like a pleasant surprise like oh I never would’ve pictured you to be so like expressive or emotional and stuff. In a weird way, I kinda don’t mind that I’m a little difficult to approach/get to know…it’s not like I intentionally do it but the fact that it is like that, it means that when people do try to get to know me they’re putting in effort and I appreciate that in a sense. It kinda weeds out the whack people who are like oh this guy doesn’t talk or oh this guy looks waste, I’m not gonna bother trying to get to know him. Just this idea of perception and how perception changes is so interesting to me….hearing people’s first impressions of me and then what they think of me now after they’ve had numerous conversations and interactions with me. Or even myself, having preconceived notions and perceptions of people but then when you actually interact with them it’s much different than you expected. I was also talking to a friend about this the other day, when you go into a new setting whether work or school or whatever, you obviously scout the surroundings and the people that are there and in your mind you’re already categorizing people into who you think you’re get along with and who you don’t think you’ll mesh with just based on your first impressions of them. But then obviously when time passes and you get the opportunity to interact with people, it all changes. I’m always reminded to never judge a book by it’s cover and even though first impressions are important to a certain degree, they’re not the end all be all and I def try to give people second changes and first impressions. Otherwise if I was hella cold and hard to approach and people saw that as their first impression and went with that, I’d probably have like 3 friends LOL. Anyways, I hope this post wasn’t too random, it def felt all over the place as I was writing it but hope y’all enjoyed. Till next time, DEUCES.