Describe Yourself

I cannot clearly remember the first time I was asked to tell about something about myself. It was probably one of those impromptu speeches in my English class in high school. Self introduction was customary during the first day of class in my college years. Telling something about self is also commonly expected during job interviews, beauty pageants, joining club memberships and even in joining social networks online.

People ask this question if they want to know about the person but don’t know where to start, hesitant to ask specific questions and want to test the person’s communication skills and self confidence.

“Am I in a job interview?” My usual response when asked to say something about myself in online chatrooms. I usually find this question ridiculous in online chatrooms, but there are more outlandish things happening online than being thrown by this ridiculous statement. Sometimes, I asked them back what particularly they would want to know.

I don’t know how well I answered the first time. I can only remember the red fluids coming out of my nose as I my mind was slashed into halves trying to conquer the question who am I and putting the right words in English correctly. What I know until now is that I am not getting any better. I still find this question most difficult to answer. Ask me about Moses and global warming, I would be alright. Ask me to tell something about myself, I would probably tell you that I have been asking that same question for the longest time too.

How would I describe myself? If I would say I am a good person, part of my blood would probably go against the flow, my heart would loose the pacing of its pumps and all my systems would probably stop and shout, “What did you just say?” But, I am not a bad person either. So, I would say I am average, ordinary and simple guy. Again, I am not average, ordinary and simple in all aspects of being. I feel that I am too complicated to describe. What part of me I will tell, where will I start, what I will describe next, and how will I end it questions add to its complexity.

Most of the time, I found nothing about me to share. It is evident in my social network profiles online. I rarely write anything in the space provided for. Some online social network would not allow you to continue the registration process if you’re not going to fill in anything. So I usually write the “average simple guy” and sometimes “Just ask me if you want to know me better”. I know these are annoying self introduction.

I browsed and read other people’s profile. A lot of people are really good at describing themselves. Some are short and specific, others are long and interesting. One of the boldest self introductions I have read so far is my friend Rain’s description of himself in his blog. His self-confidence maybe above the roof but I know he can stand by what he wrote about himself.

Self-confidence, knowing your specific audience and what they would want to know are essentials to a better introduction. I’d give it a try.