How my friends and I use people watching for fun, not judgment

People watching is not something I use as a means of judgement but as a way to pass time in an enjoyable way. You do not have to always solely make judgements based on what people are wearing you can create stories based on their actions. I do not know who these people actually are because I have never talked to them but it is fun to try and make up what their life is like even if it is non-realistic.

People often say that young women are judgmental towards everything and everyone especially when we are people watching or just looking around.

This appalls me because we all, whether female or male, make judgements every day whether it be choosing what clothes to wear or who your friends are.

I am not sure when it started but my friends and I started to change our views on judgement. It started with changing how we judge people when we people watch. Usually, young women – or at least my friends and I – make assumptions based on people’s appearances while people watching.

Instead of judging people based on their clothes, my friends and I tried to change the game by gathering our opinion based on how they act. Obviously we do this for fun, not to actually determine what kind of person they are, but we use people watching as a way to pass time. We watch how these people interact and then make stories up about them. We wonder what their personalities are like or what their stories are.  It might sound a little strange but it’s always good for a few laughs.

One time I was on the bus and saw a couple of girls who were sitting directly across from me dressed rather fancy, especially considering the typical outfit in Boone is leggings, a t-shirt and chacos. One of the girls realized I was watching and told her friends. They all turned to look at me. I smiled because I believe that to be the polite thing to do, but two of them gave me a look of disgust and started laughing while the third smiled back.

After this, I looked towards the front window and watched the cars drive by as I started to picture their lives. If I based it off of what they were wearing I would had thought that maybe they were just some friends going out to a fancy dinner. However, once two of the young ladies gave me a rude look I did not have the best opinion of them. Because the third smiled back, I decided to imagine that they were in a modern day Cinderella story. There were the two step sisters and of course the Cinderella personality girl. Since they were dressed up I decided to make it so that they were going to a formal (like a high school prom) and “Cinderella” ended up having a drink spilled on her by the elder stepsister (which actually did occur) making it so she could not go to the dance. Instead of getting off at the right stop she went back home where the events continued just like in the Cinderella fairytale.

This is just one example of the many stories my friends and I made up. The typical 20 minute bus ride back to campus felt like a five minute ride after my imagination took over. Whoever said sitting on a bus by yourself is boring clearly has not tried this.