From the moment she walked into class, she irritated me. Something about her just made me angry.

Maybe it was the way she walked in late.

That’s it.

She had the audacity to be tardy on the first day of classes, yet still came in with confidence, while I made sure to be at least five minutes early to my first class of the semester.

It’s petty, I know, but seeing someone glide easily into the year I anxiously awaited all summer irked me. Her seemingly blase manner and later, her need to correct everything I said or did in class did not make my impression of her any better.

Little did I know, my new nemesis and I would end up joining the same organizations later in the year. Activities that required us to spend time and even, at times, work together.

And little did I know, spending time together would lead us to talk to each other, to get to know each other, and shed our unfortunate first impressions of each other.

Because while I had at first thought my dislike was one-sided, it turns out this person had thought I was a know-it-all, and a bit high strung on the side.

But it wasn’t until we found ourselves spending a late night together studying that my former enemy and I found ourselves really bonding.

A combination of exhausted deliriousness and a realization that we both liked the same music led to laughter, which in turn led to those deep talks that only seem to happen around 2 a.m.

While it was hard to admit my first impression could have been wrong, it was worth it to be able to explore what was underneath what I originally thought was a shallow surface.

A lot of people claim they’re good at reading people. That they can tell whether or not someone is nice, or smart, or annoying, or rude just by seeing them once. That they can decide a person’s worth, or more accurately, whether they are worth knowing, by a single glance.

While there may be some instances where you can know by a first impression to stay away from someone- like if you meet them while they are literally stealing candy from a baby, or if they have a Donald Trump bumper sticker, or they are wearing sandals with socks- people are so much more than what they first appear to be.

You just have to give them a chance.