While I enjoyed the attention (as I am wont to do), I used this excuse of spirit week to get back in touch with myself. It may sound strange, but while I have my mustache and goatee, I kind of think of myself as being in disguise--that it's me with a mustache and goatee. Thus, if I remove the mustache and goatee, I will get to see myself again.
Except it didn't happen. While I received a number of compliments today, especially regarding how youthful I now apparently look, I didn't recognize myself. I spent a good deal of time looking, too. In the end, I just didn't see me. Instead I found myself looking at a stranger in the mirror. His face was rounder than mine, his eyes closer together, his cheeks and chin not nearly as chiseled, his smile not as genuine.
My facial hair will be returning soon. Without shaving, my mustache and goatee can return quite rapidly. Within a month, this experiment will be forgotten by everyone but me. I will see a man in the mirror with a mustache and goatee, but will know that the face behind the facial hair is not me.