To start this 10 week blog series off, I'm going to give you a brief explanation of what these blogs with this title will be about. You know how there are situations in everyday life in which you think of doing one thing but rationalize what you want to do and act in another way? Well, for the next couple week I am going to act in whatever manner that comes to first comes to mind, no matter the situation (positive or negative), and try an understand the reason why we tame our reactions and how we do so.
Since this was the first "report," if you can call it that, I wanted to start of simple and work my way into more difficult situations.
First off, I would like to say that I am the type of person who would like to get to know what makes up a person. Usually, I do not go off and start talking to strangers that catch my attention through their personality, actions, language, dress or look but I do always want to know more about them. As a result, I decided to go up to these people and talk them but secretly try and get the information I was looking for.
The most interesting story took place at UCI's own ZOT N GO. This past week I have been sick with what I hope is just the flu and I decided to stop by Zot N Go to buy some theraflu. I went up to the cashier to pay and she asked me how I was doing. With my soar throat and raspy voice I replied "sick." What caught me off guard was the way she replied, which was "Oh No." But with that tone of voice that showed like she did care. She went on about how I should wear a sweater and ways to get better fast and was really into it. It caught me so off guard that I was quiet at first and it seemed that she was having a conversation by herself. As I snapped myself out of semi shock, I realized I was intrigued with that fact that she cared so much about a some stranger being sick so I decided to continue on the conversation to find out how much she cared and how she would react if I opened up. I started saying all my symptoms, worries about being sick, medicines I have taken, what I think it is and the different way I could have gotten it. I thought that she would have been freaked out about some stranger talking to her about their own sickness but she wasn't. Her reaction was simply just to go on talking. By this time though, my interest in the girl was done with but she still kept talking and to top it off there were people behind us. At this point the situation changes and instead of trying to talk to see why she cared so much, I decided I didn't want to talk to her anymore. That and I was going to be late for my class that was kind of far. So, I just got my things and left in the midst of her talking, started to walk off, turned to see her reaction, and then walked out. I am not going to lie, I felt really bad because I would have probably just said excuse me but im going to be late for class, but I reacted on what first came to mind. Her reaction was not anger, sadness, or laughter but it was just simple confusion. Her face looked how it would if you saw a zebra on campus; her head slightly to the left with locked on eyes and furrowed eyebrows. I understand why just walking off confused her and I believe it was because it was more on impulse and there were no body language or verbal clues that signaled that I had to leave.
Although I did not get a good enough reaction to analyze, I do feel this was a good start up exercise to help me in future situations. Also, I did get a tiny but slightly noticeable adrenaline rush since I was not used to acting like that.
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