In Their Eyes

Any girl who grew up in the 1990's should easily recognize this game:

I remember eagerly hoping for the most anticipated moment when my older sister(s) would (finally!) allow me to intrude on any given sleepover and be the fourth player in the game.  For me, the youngest of three girls, that was the ultimate acceptance into a world of secrets and giggles I was usually left to experience only in my imagination.  I vividly remember one of the questions that asked which celebrity the player most resembles, thereby introducing the ever-so-popular notion of celebrity dopplegangers to me.  Once, when that question came to me, I remember anxiously waiting to hear who the other girls would compare me to.  My knowledge of pop culture then, much like now, was so...progressive that I did not know any of the people they mentioned.  Considering the internet (ie google image) wasn't really a thing yet, I lost the rare opportunity to learn how others see me.  That opportunity has since been redeemed, for better or worse, on more than one occasion just this past week.

I was recently invited to give a guest lecture at a neighboring university.  The organizer of the event asked me to send in a picture for the posters he wanted to set up around campus, but I was unable to do so in time due to connectivity issues.  "No problem!" I was assured - he'd taken the matter into his own hands and searched the internet for a picture that he believed looked like me.  Apparently this is how he saw me:

Perhaps his search was "hospital staff ID photo"?

Of course, it didn't bother me much that the photo was a little, well...off, considering that the title/topic of my presentation was slightly off as well.  I was slotted to discuss "The American Revolution: Birth of a Nation" even though the introduction was set up as:

Revolution for the South, perhaps.  I daresay no new nation was born.

I was able to clear up the presentation misunderstanding pretty quickly, but interestingly enough, none of the 150 attendees even seemed to notice that I was not the person in the picture.  I am occasionally told that all of us foreigners look alike, after all.

The night after my guest presentation, I ran into a former student of mine and she excitedly told me about a movie she recently watched.  She asked if I'd ever seen "She's the Man."  It's one of my go-to, feel-good movies, so I thought we'd have a great conversation about the quotable lines and whatnot.  She, however, had other points of discussion in mind, like insisting that I resemble Amanda Bynes.  I don't think there could have been any better comedic timing, considering the strange happenings of the day before.  I told her I didn't see it, but thought it was very kind of her to think so.  She went so far as to send me this picture after she got home:

"What do you think? Don't you think she look[s] like you?"

I'm not really sure what was going through either of their minds when they decided these photos suited me, but I am so glad for the reminder that my identity is not wrapped up in how other people see me or my appearance.  Getting a good laugh hasn't been so bad, either.