By: Meagan McNulty <[email protected]>

It was the summer after freshman year and before leaving for Rome, I specifically remember looking at the itinerary for the days we were to spend there and realizing, much to my surprise, I was probably going to be bored. Intermixed between visiting museums stuffed with Degas and Monets, lay free time, where our tour group was to split off, eat gelato and people watch.
An interesting concept, indeed, but not something I was going to shell out a couple grand to do overseas when I could easily do the same at Clay Terrace.

To give it a shot when the time came, I mindlessly ate the gelato and occupied myself with the people that flooded the streets.

Without realizing it, I tuned into a newfound level of observing. The flood of pedestrians turned into the confused tourist accompanied by his equally confused wife and the exquisitely dressed shopper, weighed down by countless designer shopping bags, who had just inadvertently cut off the delivery man leaving the café. The mixing and mingling people individualized and took form. They had names, jobs, families and lives of their own. Before I knew it, my gelato dish had emptied because I had become preoccupied, essentially, with being a creeper.

But is it really nosy to take notice to the lives of others? Not just as means of entertainment in foreign countries or at the mall, but in general, when we’re at school with our peers. Finally brought to my attention in Italy, I realized how much I was missing out on. Communicating is more than spoken words; it’s the things we do and the way we do them.

Too often a time we find ourselves numb to our surroundings, too captivated by our own daily issues and personal problems to notice one other. I admit that there have been times when someone could have been walking down the hall between classes with a paper bag over his head and I wouldn’t have noticed. Maybe I was tired, worried or simply apathetic, but during those moments of oblivion, nothing else mattered but my thoughts and what I was going to do next.
We’ve all done it, especially when it comes down to listening an iPod. Although an amusing form of entertainment, the iPod, as well as other forms of new technology, inhibit basic social skills. While listneing to an iPod, or text messaging, etc., we often appear to be shutting ourselves out and seperating ourselves from what is going on around us.

By simply becoming aware of each other, we can learn about the bigger picture. What’s bothering us today? What makes us uncomfortable, or better yet, what sets us at ease?

All can be told by simply observing body language and expressions. To dig even deeper, we can even pick up on one another’s personalities by observing sense of style and overall demeanor. Gaining a new perspective on relationships can often stem from these unsaid expressions and picking up on these expressions can allow us to become more in tune with each other.

Sure it can be an interesting way of passing time, gawking at strangers and making snide remarks about questionable wardrobe choices, but a more constructive and personal version of the recreational people watching can be applied in everyday life. An elementary example lies in the fact that relationships would be simply doomed if, face-to-face, someone couldn’t tell sarcasm from truth.

Based off of facial expressions and voice inflections we can distinguish between the two, and hopefully choose to laugh at our friends’ joke attempts. As a commonly used form of observation, this example can be broadened to a grander scale, one that allows us to make sense of the way we interact socially. By observing each other’s quirks and individual characteristics, we can better understand the reasoning behind certain social decisions.

As we notice the characteristics that make someone unique, we pick up on the traits that create the personality of individual. For instance, in any well-written novel, it shouldn’t be hard to find one descriptive paragraph that allows us to mentally imagine the main character. Without this written description, it would become increasingly difficult to relate to any situation he or she might be placed in.

Whether it be deceiving a tricky villain or finding a true love, without that image of the character painted within us, we can’t determine how they will react to the actions of others within the plot scheme. Just like in a novel, without noticing anything about demeanor, we cannot socially relate nor can we gage the reactions of others.

Although somewhat smaller than Rome, in a school of over 4,000, it shouldn’t be hard to notice someone new each day. What may be challenging, though, is noticing what makes this person different than the others. And for me, maybe its time to take off the paper bag, and for once, truly look around instead of just forward. Meagan McNulty is a feature editor for the HiLite. Contact her at [email protected].