First Impressions
Written by Karen Weido, August Blogger of the Month

I have never been good with the whole “first impressions” thing.  I tend to be a little shy; I keep to myself until someone makes the effort to include me.  Until I really get to know someone, I tend to just keep my mouth shut.  It’s not something I do intentionally, it just happens to be who I am.

I think one of the reasons I tend to keep quiet and I usually feel like the teeny-tiny fish in the big pond.  My first thought goes to my first time to attend my sorority’s national convention.  I was representing a chapter with less than 30 members; my roommate was representing her chapter of over 200. I immediately felt out of my league with nothing to contribute.

I also notice it in organizations I am part of throughout the state.  I often represent my company at meetings.  My company is very small compared to some of our counter-parts across the state.  I can never compete with them on an equal level, so I just sit back and listen.

With the AR Women Bloggers Unplugged Conference coming up this weekend, first impressions are definitely on my mind.  I read several blogs from women across our great state.  These blogs are huge.  A single post often gets more comments than my blog gets visitors in a month!  In the blog world, these women are celebrities – celebrities that I am about to meet, eeek.

So what’s the point here?  The point is that one thing I’ve learned over the years is that the first impression that you give off is important.  Just because you are small does not mean you don’t have something amazing to contribute.  Everyone who is big once started off small.  Those of us with “little” blogs are about to be given an opportunity to learn from the best; we will be given the opportunity to gather ideas and get the advice that just might make us the “big” we aspire to become.

If nothing else, just having the confidence to walk up to someone and say ‘hi’ may be the beginning of a new friendship that makes your life complete.  So this weekend I am excited about having the opportunity to venture out and do something that would otherwise make me a nervous wreck.  I’m looking forward to new friends and a multitude of first impressions.

About 75 women will converge at the Ozark Folk Center this weekend for the second annual Arkansas Woman Bloggers Unplugged Conference.  If you cant join us you can follow the conference hashtag #AWBU on twitter!