Playing in front of the Mirror

I so disliked the results of my self portrait (so concentrated while drawing my face that I had no regard for the grim expression until afterwards) that I decided to capture my face the way I see it. The way I like to see it.

I don't know if you pose in front of the mirror - looking at yourself as if you were looking at someone else, then freezing to look at how you look looking at them. I do sometimes.

If you know me, these images may look a little odd because they are reflections, everything reversed. But this is how I always see me. The older we get, and the less symmetrical we get as we age, the less our view (always in mirrors) jives with the rest of the world's.

Stranger still is that away from mirrors I imagine myself differently and my reflection surprises me. I picture myself with dark hair and without a beard (though I've had this beard, with only a three week gap, for the last 28 years). I have a bit more chin, as well... and a bit less neck beneath it. It's not just that I'm younger; in my mind's eye I'm in my early thirties, actually, and my hair was already mostly gray by then, so I never actually looked as I do in my imagination. I wonder if everyone has a slightly different self they picture? Are we all out of sync with the mirror?