Everyone in the room leaned closer to the image on the screen\u2014a gleaming ring made of endless circles nested inside one another. The caption claimed the number of circles you noticed revealed something unsettling about your personality. Some people laughed it off, counting quickly and announcing their answers with confidence. Others stared longer than they meant to, their smiles fading as they realized the circles seemed to multiply the more attention they gave them. What started as a joke slowly turned quiet, like the image was staring back, asking why you were so focused on the center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mara said she saw only one circle\u2014the diamond, perfect and bright. Then she paused, noticing the gold band, the inner rings, the reflections she\u2019d missed at first. With each discovery came an odd discomfort, as if the image were peeling back layers of her thoughts. She finally looked away, uneasy, realizing the trick wasn\u2019t about narcissism at all. The circles didn\u2019t reveal who you were\u2014they revealed how deeply you were willing to look at yourself before deciding what you wanted to see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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