A prompt from WordPress Daily Press totally gobsmacked me this morning. The idea is to write a scene where I meet “an opposite version of (myself).” A sort of DC Comic Bizarro World-slash-Seinfeld encounter.

Aside from the obvious physical differences – taller, thinner, younger, more blonde – the internal changes are what stumped me.

What sort of person would my Htrae-ling doppelgänger be like? To know that, I have to know who I am, and I was having a difficult time trying to describe me.

I want to think that I am kind and empathic. I’m relatively intelligent, and have a modicum of common sense. I tend to take people at face-value, but can also be highly cynical. My bullshit detector is getting more accurate as I get older.

There are times when I am self-confident, but more often I’m simply muddling through hoping I don’t draw any attention to myself. I don’t like crowds, but will introduce myself to strangers and can hold my own in a conversation.

It’s not easy describing the person you are when you don’t really know.

My husband chides me because I ALWAYS get him to write cover letters for me when submitting a resume. I left off an About Me page for years, because I had no idea what to write. I can compose someone else a glowing review, I could write my husband a winning cover letter, but when I have to focus on me, I’m completely lost.

The only way I got around an About introduction for my blog was to write it in third-person, as if it referred to someone else.

I can say I like to read and write stories. I can point out that my favorite hobbies are photography and hiking. I like to cook, and eat. I’m kind to small animals, but have a low tolerance for little kids (having already raised two of my own.) I can point out that I have always lived in the south (my excuse for my Dixie drawl), and probably always will.

If asked, I admit to being Republican, but forward thinking on many social issues. I hate few things or people, but am a grudge holder. I’m on a first name basis with God, but rarely visit Him at His House. I’m also friends with Buddha and Gandhi.

My business card could list me as a wife and mother, sister and daughter, aunt and friend, but not an expert in any of those roles – a deficiency that causes no small level of consternation.

It’s the intangible variables that are hard to pinpoint, the essence of who I am, that I can’t seem to describe. I don’t know what an opposite Me would be like, because on any given day, I can’t characterize the actual Me.