About a month ago, I helped staff a speech camp for the area's competitors, and those interested in starting. On the last day, after a mock tournament and awards ceremony, there was an icecream social for all of the participants. After being introduced to my tenth person sibling or parent of various participants, I noticed something odd: I'd hugged each and every one of them, and I'd just met them. This startled me, since I've usually got boundaries about people I do and don't touch, so in the intervening month, I've done some very specific people-watching. The results are kind of interesting... In fact, if they weren't, I wouldn't be blogging about it.
Girls have an interesting habit: Hugging. The first thing I observed was that we tend to hug people hello and goodbye, kind of like shaking hands and greeting each other. This makes sense: I started doing it when I started homeschooling. But watching on, past the obvious greetings, I noticed something else.
If we're happy, we hug people. Conversely, if we're sad we hug people. Girls will also hug if they are excited, feeling down, relaxing, appreciating humor... basically, if we're in the clutches of some emotion, we'll hug someone.
This whole month of observation has been rather interesting, because people watching oneself is, pardon the comparison, kind of like depersonalization disorder.
B
Ya know SB that I used to not hug people because I thought it was "too girly".
ReplyDeleteI'm not much of a "touchy" person still, but I'm glad that I am not stingy any more though.
If need be, I will reach out but other wise I usually leave it to someone else.
-Libby