People Watching

For an English assignment we had to go walk around the college and find personality traits and physical traits and make a list. When we got back to class the teacher told us to pick a few of the things from our list. After we picked a few items from our list we had to describe a person and that person had to exhibit all of those traits we had selected. Here is my list of traits and my story to go along with it.

16 personality traits

1.       Social butterflies – girl that went from one table to another table to another table and said something to someone at all three tables

2.       Outgoing – speaks with no concern to their volume

3.       Quiet – sits alone listening to music/not talking to anyone

4.       Flirt – boys walk up to a girl, smiles, and talks/laughs with her

5.       Comedian – guy telling jokes or a story to a group of people because he made them all laugh

6.       Loner – someone sitting outside all by themselves, engrossed in their own thing (music, studying, listening to music, writing)

7.       Observer – someone sitting at a table by themselves but watching everyone in the room

8.       Self-conscious – girl walking across the room tugging at her shirt (pulling it down)

9.       Tired – guy sleeping

10.   Loving – couple snuggled together

11.   Studious – people doing school work/head stuck in a text book

12.   Relaxed – guy reclined back in a chair, ankles crossed, arms folded behind his head

13.   Rushed – someone walking very quickly down the hallway

14.   Nervous – feet tapping on the floor/pencil tapping on the desk

15.   Bored – sitting and playing angry birds on cell phone outside a classroom door

16.   Neat – everything sitting on the table neat and orderly

10 physical traits

1.       Walking hunched over due to overloaded backpacks

2.       Hair not styled – did they even brush their hair today?

3.       Some dressed very nice and some still in their house shoes

4.       Tattoo on a guy’s arm – looks like a snake although I could only see part of it

5.       Girl with way to much make up

6.       Someone with glasses – small round frames

7.       Guy with a big nose

8.       T-shirt with OTC written across the chest

9.       One person’s face with lots of acne

10.   Smiling faces – lots of them

People Watching

I am sitting in the atrium at school. I am early today. So to kill time I decide to do some people watching. The first person I see is a guy walking into the atrium. He is wearing a back pack. The back pack is so heavy that it causes him to walk a little hunched over. He reminds me of a hunch back as he walks to a table with his head down. I cannot see his face. He stops at a table and sits down. He is a loner, no one is sitting around him, it’s like he picked the most secluded table in the room. He starts digging in his backpack and unpacks his stuff. His laptop is out sitting on the table although he doesn’t pay attention to it yet. He sets out his book, a notebook, pencil, and highlighter and sets everything out on the table. He is so neat about how he lays everything on the table in an orderly way. He yawns and stretches and leans back in his chair with his feet extended out in front of him, crosses them at the ankle, and then puts his hands behind his head and surveys the room. His is a quiet observer as he looks around. A few minutes later a woman walks over to him and sits down beside him at the table. He is lovey towards her. They scoot their chairs beside each other and hold hands. She rests her head on his shoulder. A group of guys walk up to them. Suddenly he becomes the group’s comedian. He is standing up and waving his arms as he talks to the group. They are all laughing at him. I can see part of a tattoo on his bicep as he lifts his arm. I’m not sure what it is and it leaves me curious. The woman and the guys leave. He sits back down at the table and puts his head down. He appears to be tired. I sit and watch him and the others in the room for a little while longer. I think he may have fallen asleep. Suddenly his cell phone starts vibrating on the table. He jumps up and starts tossing things back into his backpack. He is rushed. As he quickly leaves the room he is like a social butterfly, stopping for just a second at a couple of tables to say a few quick words to people. As he heads off to his new destination his path has him walking right past my table. I look up at him now that I can finally see the front of his body. I am surprised at what I see. He is wearing a t-shirt with OTC written across his chest, his house shoes, and his hair sticking up in all different directions. It makes me wonder if he got dressed this morning or did he wear that to bed last night and when his alarm went off this morning he just got up and came to school without bothering to change or comb his hair.  As he walks closer I hope my mouth is not hanging open because I cannot believe what I am seeing. He has a pair of small round framed glasses perched upon his unusually large nose, although that is not what catches my attention. What has my mouth agape is the fact that he is wearing way to much make-up. I have never seen a guy with that much eyeliner, eye shadow, and such bright lipstick on before. After seeing that, I have decided that I am done with people watching for the day. I am going to go to class and try to think of something else to get that image out of my head.