Daily writing prompt

What’s the first impression you want to give people?

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As a rule, I don’t like meeting people. Early on in life, I’ve classified myself as being introverted and therefore, I feel like the people I already know should be the only ones I associate with my whole life. That being said, there have been times when living where I live, (in case anybody is wondering, I live in supportive housing,) I’ve been forced to meet new staff that secure a job working in the building where I live. This can get frustrating for me as I have to go through the whole routine of first introducing myself, (something else I do not like doing,) and being nice while giving the impression of being an outgoing person at the presumed expectation of mom. Unfortunately, I will fail to meet those expectations in meeting people as I will nod my head out of approval for the person at best, but will not go out of my way to engage them in any conversation other than what’s necessary until I get to know them better. Even at addressing what is necessary, I will just say what’s needed and that’s it and this has resulted in staff who were already working here telling me I could have been nicer. Not surprisingly, the same speech is given by mom, only much more assertively, if and when she finds out I was like that towards a new staff. Having said all of this, if I’m meeting someone in mom’s presence, (not necessarily someone new in the building but someone in a general sense,) she will give me cues as to how I should address people and will sometimes mouth to me to introduce myself. If I fail to do this, it usually results in trouble with mom. Despite this, I have to say that since I’m introverted, I really don’t care about what kind of first impression I make. I am who I am. This may sound rude and really bad to say but I’m not going to change who I am just to impress people. I’m sorry but this is true. Some people just weren’t meant to be social and I’m unfortunately one of those people. This is why I say I do not like joining groups or even eating meals downstairs in the kitchen. I feel like the main purpose of me doing this is to be social with people when I’m clearly not that type of person.