The Art of People Watching

For those of you who know me, you know one of my favorite things to do is people watch.  Something about it just truly intrigues me. No matter where I am or what I'm doing there is a pretty solid chance that I'll get distracted by watching all the people around me.

Now I know that sounds kinda creepy. But let me try to explain myself a little by telling you about the inspiration for this post.

I'm currently sitting in a Starbucks in an area of Lexington referred to as Chevy Chase. (A little background of Chevy Chase is that it's just outside the University of Kentucky's campus as well as being just outside one of the more wealthier areas in Lexington. It's kinda smack dab in the middle of the two. So as you could guess, it provides to a very interesting array of people.) I originally came here to do some homework and study a little but typical Amanda got inspired by the people around me.

Heres a picture of what I'm sitting in the middle of:

• To the far right of me there's what seems to be a high school student tutoring a middle school student about geometry
• Directly to the right of me there is a man who put so much sugar and milk in his coffee I think he just should have ordered milk with a shot of coffee, he's taking pictures of himself for what I hope is Snapchat
• I can see 9 Mac computers without even turing my head to see the rest of the store, so I assume there are a lot of college students here to work on homework (like me)
• There are two businessmen talking loudly on the phone to a client about a faulty product they sold
• In the couch areas to my left there is a group of (what seems like) intellectual old men drinking black coffee and talking about something very passionately (and loudly)
• A little further to my left there is a table of senior sorority girls doing homework and talking (I know this because one actually used to be the president of my chapter)
• And a little after that there's a table of teenagers that must have walked here from the nearby middle school drinking nothing other than venti double chocolatey chip frappaccinos. Because what else could they get and actually like? 

The point of this is that there is something truly amazing looking at all the different people in all the different stages of their life and, somehow, they all ended up here. The same place, doing close to the same things. 

Earlier in the semester in my design class, we talked about how Starbucks was designed as a community. That it creates a bond between perfect strangers by just the logo on a cup. Until now, I never really realized how true this was. While no one is intermingling between groups, we all came here for the very same reason: to get things done and to drink coffee. Maybe this doesn't mean much to many people, but to me, I find nothing more interesting. I don't need music to focus on writing this or to do my homework. Just the chatter of all these people around me is music enough in my world. 

So, with this, I want to challenge anyone reading this to take a step back and really observe whats around you. Whether this is in class, at the mall or a movie theater, or just in a coffee shop like me. 

What you see may truly amaze you.