Today, I went to our cafeteria type setting food court thing and ate my food and people watched, a favorite activity. Out of the corner of my eye, in the couch-seats a couple feet away from me, I saw someone trying to get up, but almost fell, and he had a guy (also our age) with him, that caught him. At first I thought this was just a simple case of someone-almost-trips-but-someone-nice-is-there-to-catch-you situation, until I looked closer and realized the guy that almost fell was suffering from some type of muscular deterioration condition (MD, MS, MG..? I couldn't quite tell.) His companion must have been a friend or a hired aide by the college or personal family. So, me being a nursing major, I am extremely curious about this man. I want to learn, observe. I am in the medical community and I am curious to see conditions and diseases first-hand, rather than in textbooks. But, we live in a type of society where 'staring' at people-different-than-you is considered rude. So even though all I want to do is watch this person, I couldn't help but look back down at my sandwich, because I didn't want to appear cold, or rude, or a person that is scrutinizing this person because he is different....It's a fine, fine line. If I were disabled in any way, or if I had a condition that made me look different, I wouldn't care if you were a nursing major and were just "curious" about me...I still wouldn't want you to stare at me as if I were a monkey in a zoo. From their perspective, people don't have it written on their foreheads as to why they are staring at you, whether or not they are innocently curious, or if they are making fun of you, or feel sorry for you. So, circling back to me in the cafeteria, I felt it unnecessary to watch this man, because I wouldn't want to be watched. The interesting part is, he wasn't even turned towards me and wouldn't even have seen me watching anyway, but I still don't want to be that person that is staring. You know as well as I do that it is very easy to "feel" eyes on you. How many times have you looked up and found someone across the room staring straight at you? See, that's another paranormal human connection type thing...
Another interesting observation of the day...
~WNB
10 + Years in Nursing In Medical Surgical, Women's Health, Telemetry and Informatics.
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