Being impressionable is often thought to be a fault. It brings to mind a young man learning from older or cooler kids how to smoke or swear or spit. Typically, it's used in a phrase like "impressionable youth."
And often you use the phrase "he made a good impression on me" to say that you liked the person, that the person was agreeable or admirable. Rarely do you hear the phrase about an "it" rather than a person.
But I like the idea of being "impressionable" meaning that you are open to being "impressed" (I never thought about that word as being related before! It suggested that the THING has left an impression on you... an impression like a record or a metal stamp on wet wax... a tin ceiling tile.). The image that comes to mind is a ball of clay that can be changed, altered, imprinted.
It's true that in our youth we are more impressionable.... things and people are more likely to leave an imprint on us. Partly it's because, as my old favorite book "on seeing nature" says, you are like a puddle and each experience is like a drop in it... at the beginning, your puddle is small and each drop doesn't make much difference... but later each drop is an insignificant change. The ball of clay becomes drier in this metaphor.
Being "impressionable" is a virtue, something to be worked towards. It's like limber joints, a limber mind.
You become "experienced" and "unimpressionable."
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