an observation about me

I generally have no idea what people think about me. I mean, I think that people probably think I'm nice, generally smart, perhaps reserved or maybe even a bit of a snob. But then sometimes people will say something about me and I think, "Where did they get that idea?"

For example, I was talking to one of my friends about movies and she told me that she thought I would prefer dramas. While I do enjoy dramas I actually like pretty much any movie except seriously heavy sci-fi or sappy melodramas (think The Notebook or Message in a Bottle). But I love a good thriller, a high impact action film, a laugh-out-loud comedy, and the occasional scare the crap out of you horror flick. I like stylish, I like different, I like crazy.

I wonder how much you can ever really know about someone. I think I know almost everything there is to know about Big J, but then again there are things that he doesn't know me, that I haven't shared with anyone. So I'm sure that there are things about him that I don't know and will probably never know. But I think it's interesting how you can think you know someone, even superficially and then be wrong about something as seemingly simple as movie tastes or music.

But the even deeper question is how do we choose what parts of ourselves we let people see? And why is it that the simple things can often be deceiving?