Self-perception is a funny thing.

The party line: define yourself.
Be yourself.
Be true to yourself.
Don’t betray your roots (but if you’re a girl, go ahead and touch them up).
Find yourself.
Don’t lose yourself.

We’re pelted with little cheerful and helpful messages by these blowguns spitting little wadded up projectiles from self-help books.

But then we sometimes have these strange opportunities to see ourselves like others see us.

If others see us in a way we don’t wish to see ourselves, does that invalidate our search for self? Or does it just make it that much more pressing?

Do we get to blow spit-and-paper bullets back?

What if the person who stares back at us from the mirror and in photographs and funny stories and family accounts turns out to be a stranger?

Don’t forget yourself: life is made up of separate and unique moments, but they can all be stitched together with Photoshop.