On this Tuesday morning
I choose to wear khaki pants, black sneakers, and a black hoodie, and I realized that I am my typical self and a true reflection of the businessperson I hope to be in the future. Most people in the hood and at school associate me with this appearance, so I feel at ease in the suit, which is how most of the young people around me dress. In my daily encounters, particularly at school, I meet my classmates, with whom I go to class and then have brief conversations before heading to town to run some errands. As I stroll in the city, I notice strangers especially women who steal glances on me quite often with most of them smiling in admiration in which I try not to smile back but in some cases I cannot help. After winding up my town errands, I decided to stop over a cafe for a cup of coffee and the reception here is exceptional. The waitress attends to me in a few minutes and strikes a conversation, which I shyly brush off as I pay my bill and leave the cafe.
In the second day
I wear a pair of black jeans, a pair of black shoes and a black hoodie, and I will remain in the hood all times. My hair is slightly unkempt, and in most cases, I walk with my head facing downwards, and I pocket all the time. As a zip up my hood and tighten the top straps with the hood covering almost half of my face, I have the feeling of the autism teenager that I have altered myself into, and I am shy to look twice in the mirror. I pick my backpack and head to school at a slow speed. At the entrance, the security guards give a suspicious look and ask for my identification documents before allowing to proceed to the facility. I meet my fellow students, who barely recognize me. As I enter the lecture room, it is few minutes into the lecture, the professor looks at me sympathetically and ushers me a seat in the front and hands me a handout. When the lecture is over, a classmate picks my handout and heads out with a group of other students. On my way home, I pass via the grocery shop, and I can notice strangers in and out of the store staring at me and paving the way for me as if I pose a threat. The cashier too looks at me suspiciously and quickly attends to me so that I could get out of sight as fast.
According to my experiences
It is evident that the physical appearance significantly determines the people’s attitude towards you, and subsequently how they treat you. In the first day, the people I am used to, and strangers alike treat me with respect and our socialization is normal. Due to this, I have learned that I am a highly sociable character who can influence a group of people in the society. On the second day, even the people that know me including the professor and students could not recognize me because of my appearance. My appearance represents a weakling who deserves sympathy and seems like a security threat to the society. In all human decisions, it is not always easy to ignore the physical appearance in coming up with social judgment. Therefore, in the first day, my appearance creates an impression of a focused and intelligent teenage student while the second one gives the impression of a troubled teenager who seems a threat to himself and the society. The society, therefore, in most cases is not keen to judge people based on their actions but is usually quick to judge according to the physical appearance.
