Confidence

The title of this post is suddenly evoking images of Maria von Trapp for me, but that's beside the point...

I came to the conclusion the other night that I may have a great deal more confident than I realize   Don't get me wrong, I can be as insecure as the next person in a variety of situations, I just think that since I've worked so hard over the past couple of years to just go with the flow, it doesn't occur to me that other people involved in a given situation may be nervous.

What got me to thinking of this was a first date the other night - meeting someone new used to get me very anxious and/or nervous, whereas nowadays I just try to relax.  We met for coffee, and at certain points of the conversation I felt like there was a decent connection.  There were other moments, however, that this guy was strangely standoffish.  My initial thought was that he was not enjoying himself and was perhaps being too polite to leave.  He later admitted that he'd been really nervous, which completely changed my perception.  The strange thing is that it hadn't crossed my mind all that might be the case, maybe because I wasn't nervous at all.  Is that weird?  Aren't I supposed to be nervous on a date?  By the way, this guy will not get a second date which has nothing to do with his being slightly standoffish.  He was just kind of an idiot.

On a different note, I saw an old friend recently and as we were heading out for the evening she shared that she was typically a little insecure when it came to putting together outfits (she looked fantastic).  As the conversation progressed, she offered that she was insecure on a number of different levels. To look at her - someone who is strong, beautiful inside & out, appears to be self-assured, and really just wonderful all-around - one would never guess the feelings that lie just beneath the surface.  I guess that's the way most people are, though - you never know what's really going on just beneath the surface.