We all like to select favorites, such as favorite colors, foods, places, etc. We share these facts with friends and family, adding to their basic foundation of their knowledge of us. At the end of the day, we ultimately decide that we know ourselves best, but is that true? Who knows you the best? I believe that those closest to you, rather than yourself, know you best because they have different perspectives of you that play into your character as a whole.

Knowing yourself is something that people generally think belongs to themselves by default. I’d like to argue that those around us see more about what we do or say on a daily basis. They unlock traits and characteristics that we’ve not seen in ourselves or have been distorted in our view. Just like a driving a car, we have blind spots to our image and knowledge of self. This in no way is our fault. It is up to us to listen to those who give us insight on how we are perceived.

This not to say, however, that we do not know ourselves; that is entirely untrue. We know our deepest secrets, what we find appealing, our personality. But when it comes to knowing you best, I believe that those closest to us know us best, as do the Association for Psychological Science (APS). Simine Vazire, assistant professor at the Washington University in St. Louis, relayed to the APS, “There are aspects of personality that others know about us that we don’t know ourselves, and vice-versa,” says Vazire. “To get a complete picture of a personality, you need both perspectives.”

I was put in situation which ultimately prompted me to reevaluate my character and personality recently. I discovered that I don’t know everything about me, that there were some things that others could see in me that were undetectable to myself. Maybe Socrates’,“Know Thyself” is not so individualistic as originally thought. Getting to know yourself requires more than just yourself. It requires those who know you the best.