Impressions

In chapter two of Seize the Day, we can see how important it is to take care on what we do or in how we speak. In this chapter not much really happens, except a talk between Tommy and his father. At first, since Tommy talks a lot about his thoughts, I thought he was a little exaggerated. But, after some thinking, I realized that most of us (If not all), have similar thoughts as we speak. Any thing the other one does or doesn't do can cause false impressions on us, and we can maybe even not notice. Our movements (Body Language), can annoy other people, and since most people don't tell you "Hey, that annoys me.", you have to be very careful on what you do.
"Why the devil can't he stand still when we're talking? He's either hoisting his pants up and down by the pockets or jittering with his feet".(p24) I can tell that the poor guy he's talking to is not really intending to do that in order to annoy him, and yet Willhelm doesn't tell him anything. I always tell my friends when they're doing something weird by accident, and they tell me. I think this helps us get better at talking. I don't like the fact that Willhelm criticizes but doesn't really tell the person. Also, it'snot just body language, but misinterpretations. Some days ago, a friend of my father's asked me if I knew her son,who is in 12th grade and is famous for being extremely smart. I said "Yeah, I know he's really smart, and he's not even in my grade." She then asked "Oh really? Your grade is full of smart people?", which was not what I intended to say. I intended to say that he's famous for being smart even in other grades. It was a misinterpretation, and even though she wasn't really mad becuase of my comment I felt ashamed. Willhelm makes a lot of misinterpretations, or he just over-analyzes everything people tell him. He tries to look for insinuations, or hidden meanings in phrases that don't have them. Not everyone is as extreme as Willhelm, but we have all made misinterpretations at least once in our lifes. This teaches us to be careful about our word choice, because if we aren't, we might be taken in the wrong way and this could lead to consequences we don't want to deal with.