Are you the same judge you were when you first started judging? Do you know more about the rules now? Think of how often you had to study those complicated layers questions. What about policy? Did you ever really understand lapsing triggers or give a game loss for drawing extra cards when you shouldn’t have? What about mentoring, are you a better mentor now than the first time someone asked you “how do I become a judge?”? I bet you are different now.

You grew and changed, didn’t you?

As time goes on you grow. You meet more people, your time with them is shorter and the number of first impressions you get goes up.

What do we mean by first impressions? First impressions are what we think of another judge based on the first time, or first couple of times we interact with them. Set the tone of future interactions for a time, and that can be a significant amount of time in your relationship with this new person. Holding onto a first impression is an unhealthy habit whether that first impression is a good one or a bad one. If you don’t allow your impressions of a judge to evolve with the judge you’re making decisions and judgments on outdated information.

This module will go into greater depth on this skill and how you can update your information about other people.