Waiting 'Till The Shine Wears Off

I feel like when you meet a person, there's this crazy first impression you get of them. You've already decided if you think they're likable or not, if you could potentially be friends with them, if you might get along, and whatnot. What I've found though, is how hard it is to shake that initial imprint. You continue to have that residual image of them in your head, and it takes quite a bit to go away. Call it a pair of "rose-colored glasses", a "feeling" as to why you don't like someone, or an indecisive "knot" in your gut that keeps you at an ambiguous place concerning that one particular person. Sometimes I feel that we even do this with friends we've known forever. When their name comes up in conversation, you have that initial reaction: ugh.., awesome!, ..huh, i can't wait!, or maybe just a simple indifference. I find the indifference to be a rarity though. When someone calls me on the phone, or I get a text, instant message, or email, I already have a certain mindset when I open the phone, read the email, or respond to the message. With friends, I believe that they earn this "reputation" (if you want to call it that), and that past events, known habits, old actions; these are what define this initial reaction. But with new people, what are you basing it off of? How they look? How they act? That vibe they give off? Their smile? I want so badly to remove that initial response, because that's pretty much guaranteed not to have come even close to how that person really is. I want to get to know the REAL person; to let those tinted glasses fall off, that initial gut feeling to fade, and that first impression to go out the window. But that takes time. Time that I'm willing to spend. Same goes the other way: I want people to get to know me beyond the first impression; flaws and all. I want people to know the real me. I don't want to be fake. The question is: are you, dear reader, willing to get to know who I really am? I'd say a good deal of you do. But if you don't, please get to know me. If you're in the process, I'm glad you're taking that effort. I don't want to know the "surface person" that people put about, and I don't want them to get to know mine; I want to know the real them, and for them to know the real me. Deal?