Getting to Know You

Do you remember when it was easy to get to know new people? As the new school year starts the “Getting to Know You” form at preschool asks for your favorite color, favorite food, what you like to do at home, and who lives in your house.  These days when I meet new people I tell them about my work at the college and my family and then try to share who I am as well.  I’m not sure I know what my favorite color is because it doesn’t say anything about who I am.  I want people to know that I value trust and openness, education and spiritual practice, honesty and “being real” and most of all pursuing dreams and living out whom I am created to be.

Meeting new people gets more complicated when you want to be known by more than your titles and job descriptions. Getting to “feel free and easy” with folks and getting to “know what to say” takes significant effort and some time. One of the greatest and scariest things about a college campus is that the population changes so significantly every year. It’s wonderful in that there are always fresh ideas and new energy, but it is hard in that we need to constantly engage in new relationships.

One of my favorite ways to open prayers is “God who knows us more fully than we know ourselves.”  I believe it is a basic human desire to know others and be known fully.  We all have surface relationships, and most of us have taken that a step farther removed with “Facebook friends,” but count yourself lucky and blessed if you have three or four friends who truly know you.

The biggest hurdle I have in meeting new people, besides being an introvert (I really am), is the desire to be liked. We change our behavior in order to be liked, “to be your cup of tea.”  You may feel the need to explain which higher education institution you are affiliated with in Lynchburg when folks question your politics or your academics. We want to be seen in the best light we can, but trying to be liked so often shades who we portray ourselves to be. It stops us from being truly known because we fear being disliked if we really share.

As we enter into this new time of meeting people, I encourage you all to reflect on who you really are and what you want people to see in you.  It’s easier just to live that daily and from the beginning.  I pray that we all live each “day by day” as we are created to live.

Blessings,

Stephanie