Hey, Look at Me!

Vroom, vroom. As I walk, I look up from my phone to look where the noise is coming from. Vrooooom. Looking up, I see a sports car fly by me and come to abrupt halt at the intersection of Curtin and Bigler by East Halls. As the vehicle sits at the stop sign, the driver continues to rev his car's engine. The noise was so ear-splitting that I bet everyone within a half-mile of the car could hear it.

I was curious who would dare cause such a disturbance, so I looked into the window of the vehicle and saw the driver appeared to be a male student with glasses. He was also puffing on a vaporizer. But what I found to be especially interesting about this situation was the different reactions it elicited from people. Of the many people in my vicinity, I observed three distinct responses among them: aggression, intrigue and indifference. 

Photo Credit: Damian Morys

The first and most apparent reaction I observed was from a male student who looked to be a freshman. When the noisy sports car halted at the stop sign, the male student (we'll call him Mr. Yeller), yelled something at the driver of the vehicle. To me, this engagement did not look friendly and  it appeared that Mr. Yeller was heckling the driver in some way. He might have said something to the effect of "You think you're so cool," but I can not be sure of this. In this hectic moment, I quickly deduced what appeared to be happening. I interpreted Mr. Yeller's reaction as a sign of his alpha male tendencies to always strive to be the biggest and loudest. This hypothesis was reinforced by the fact that he was walking with two females. 

While Mr. Yeller's reaction was quite unique, most other people did not care at all. Upon hearing the first revs, people immediately snapped to attention and seemed to communally lift their heads from their phones. For some, however, the obnoxious rumble was not enough to keep their attention and they proceeded on with their day. Others, perhaps intrigued by the car, stared until they walked by the car. 

In review, I believe my observations from this week are an accurate representation of the uniqueness of humans. People will always react differently to a given situation. I think it's interesting how something provoking for one person may be completely overlooked by another person. So, what can we learn from this? Perhaps we can learn that our actions, whether we realize it or not, can effect the people around us. And also we can learn that being loud isn't always the best way of getting attention.

Hope you enjoyed reading, and remember- I can't make this stuff up!