The One About How Others See Us

Most stories of my stories start with whether “I have a friend who… (is super tall/ extremely funny/ the source of my positive energy/ drinks too much/ sleeps naked)” or “Last night… (we went partying/ I stayed at home alone and stalked my ex on facebook/ read an awesome article” and the following falls into the second category.

Last night I was kindly invited to a pizza and a movie evening by partly witty, partly crazy but 100% smart-ass fellow blogger Vanessa and who am I to turn down an invitation to carb-festivities Italian style? After no crumb was left it was time for games and apparently you can make magic happen with just a pen and some sheets of paper.

My favorite game – or should I say the most interesting – was a game that goes as following: First, you have to tear a big piece of paper into many smaller ones; the more the better and the longer the game is going to last. Then everybody gets some of the little pieces and writes a personality trait or quality on it. We used words such as arrogant, smart, confident, lazy, wall-flower, animal-lover, shopaholic, organized and so on, but there’s no limit to what you can write down. In addition, you can write down some questions such as “Who is most likely to become a millionaire/ do a porn movie/ marry first/ have kids, etc.” Then fold them with care and affection so nobody can see what’s written on them and put them into a bowl.

Now it’s time to play! Someone has to go first, be the bravest and pick one of the little notes. What’s written on it? Read it out loud. Let’s say it reads “lazy”. If you could grade yourself using a scale from 1 to 10, what it would be? Think carefully, but not reveal your answer. Ask the person sitting next to you to estimate how you have graded yourself. All players have to do the same. If someone has guessed right, they get one point for their successful attempt and so does everybody whose guess was also thaaaat close to yours (if you gave yourself a 6 and nobody said 6, but somebody said 7 then they get a point). Note down the point every person gets; the one with the most points wins. But we’re not done yet; remember the questions I mentioned before? If you draw one of them you must think of which person in the room could be that. Once again, you choose not to reveal your answer and wait for others’ guesses.

What I find so interesting about this game is that you eventually find out that we judge ourselves very differently compared to the way the other see us.

In addition, I learned that I’m a) seemingly the one who parties more, b) most likely to become a millionaire, c) most likely to get married first, d) not as much of a wall-flower as I thought (or at least I don’t look like I feel so wall-flowery and shy as I actually do) and e) most likely to participate in a porn movie. I have to say I feel kind insecure about my chosen profession, but I’d never considered such a possibility.

F.

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