Reflections

I should be familiar with reaction formation, which according to our Psychology slides, means presenting the extreme opposite of one's thoughts or feelings. I remember Chan asking me why I always say the opposite of what I mean. Do I really do that? Sarcasm is my good friend, but do I really come across as being a follower of reaction formation?

Earlier in the semester, I set out to find out what my own friends think of me, and my quest turned up a few interesting results (I'm listing the words verbatim):

Joanne said that I am: optimistic, friendly, approachable, persevering, dedicated, committed, disciplined, tolerant, rational, witty, responsible, intelligent, eloquent, resourceful, caring, selfless, helpful, fun-loving, and mature.

I say:
Optimistic/persevering/dedicated/committed/disciplined/responsible - I wonder if she was referring to the nights I spent slaving over tutorials and PI/GPP. Heh.
Friendly - Guess we hit it off very quickly, huh?
Approachable - Yeay!
Tolerant - Hmmmm..
Rational - Haha! So does trying to flag down a cab for half an hour and then rushing off to school to arrive there right on the dot still make me a rational person? :P
Witty - Hehehe.. For teasing her?
Intelligent - Really? Lol.
Eloquent - For teasing her, I bet. Righttttt, Joanne?
Resourceful - Err.. Care to refresh my memory on when this showed? I can't seem to figure an incident out now.
Caring/selfless/helpful - A friend in need is always a friend indeed. :)
Fun-loving - Yeayyyyy! :)
Mature - Oh, okay, so she's older than me. My bad. :P

Chan said that I am: amiable, approachable, benevolent, attentive, easy-going but sometimes quite scary (esp when u are angry or upset), caring, considerate, supportive, intelligent, funny, resolute, resilient and undisclosed.

I say:

Amiable/approachable - Yeah, but I'm not too approachable when I'm angry, huh? :P

Benevolent - Thank you. Lol.
Attentive - Err.. Okay, maybe. :)
Easy-going but sometimes quite scary - EH, HELLO?! And to think that I never even got angry at him. =___=" But, okay, I understand, I can be scary. *sigh* Caring/considerate/supportive - :)
Intelligent - Let me think this over..
Funny - Yeah. Otherwise he wouldn't have fallen for my prank. Blekkkk. "Hey, sexy! ;)"

Resolute/resilient - Sometimes I wish I can be more of both too.

Ji Ding said that I am: proactive, resourceful, responsible, able to adapt to different environments, tactful, amiable, friendly, and caring.

I say:

Proactive - Yer? Hehe.
Resourceful - I need to ponder over this too.
Responsible - Coming from a very responsible person herself, yeay!
Able to adapt to different environments - I don't know why I suddenly feel like she was describing me like a cell in an anaerobic environment. O.o
Tactful - Hmm.. :)
Amiable/friendly/caring - I'll be here anytime you need me. :)

Elz said that I am: HILARIOUS! sarcastic! wonderful!

I say:

Hilarious - Thank you, thank you. (Sometimes it's just too easy and irresistable to make him crack up lah)
Sarcastic - I know that this is a very honest answer! And I agree with it. :P Wonderful - AWWWWWWWW! :)

Sarah said that I am: hardworking, vocal and unafraid of expressing your own opinions, can think rationally even though you're nervous, super good in english and produce super good essays, friendly, and nice.

I say:

Hardworking - :)
Vocal and unafraid of expressing my own opinions - I suppose this came from our debating experiences (against and with each other)
Can think rationally even though I'm nervous/good in English and produce good essays - From debating experiences together too, I guess. :)
Friendly/nice - :)

I was quite surprised by all the feedback that I got because some differed from the way that I saw myself. This helped me understand how people see me. I realized that sometimes we may get too wrapped up in our own definitions of ourselves that we forget that to another person, we may come across as being quite the opposite of what we think we are.

I’m glad I asked and learned. :)