reputation

It's funny how your reputation will precede you, particularly in a setting as large as a church. With the new school year starting and all the welcoming events and newcomers, I find myself introducing myself a lot. And when people come to a new community (such as a church) because they already know people here, I find that when I introduce myself, they'll shoot back some random fact about me.

For the most part, that detail for me tends to be "oh, I hear you're a karate master". I've learned to not get annoyed with the fact that neither of those (the karate or the master) are true, but after awhile I wondered if I was just going to get branded by this image. There was a time when it really bothered me that people assumed they knew me (though they've never seen me actually do my thing) and therefore didn't really attempt to get to know the real me. I think I'm coming to terms with it, but whenever I meet new people it always makes me think.

So today at the welcome picnic I was introduced to some people I had never met before. One guy started talking to me when I was throwing the football around with Melissa, and he was like "I heard you're the crazy flag grabber". To which I stammered out something like "um...well yeah I play defense. Who are you?" Graceful, sparky, good job.

And then I met someone else later, who was like "oh, YOU'RE the one who put Jooheon on the diet!"

Great. So far I'm known as that girl who can beat you up, that girl who's a beast at football, and that girl who made JH's life miserable. Man, if this is the reputation that precedes me...no one's gonna want to talk to me. Haha...sad.