Everyone needs a good, honest friend, one who will lay the issues out straight.

Yes, you look fat in those jeans.

No, she obviously doesn’t love you.

Or, of course you look silly wearing that ridiculous outfit.

The fact is sometimes we need a truthful reminder of where we stand.

Natchez recently got a dose of reality in the form of a report by a special First Impressions program that brought strangers to town to gauge visitors’ first impression.

The Natchez Downtown Development Association organized the effort.

Mostly the group of strangers told us what we already know: Our strengths are the river, downtown, history and our people.

Our weaknesses, the group reported, include a lack of industry, dilapidated housing, poor schools and unattractive gateways into the city.

While no earth-shattering information came from the study, that was no surprise.

The study does, however, confirm what we thought we knew about residents visiting town.

Things like attractive entrances to the city, better signage downtown and cleaning up blighted areas of the city are, apparently, noticed by visitors.

We just need to decide what to do about all the little “truths” the strangers have told us.

Now we know which pair of jeans makes us look fat. We’ve just got to decide what we’re going to do about it.