On a recent trip home, as my mom gave me instructions for a round of chores, she kept accusing me of not paying attention. I was, of course, listening closely, but I was also looking at the chore in question, sizing it up. I’m a visual person – I don’t need a lot of explanation…
I think I know too much. And it feels dangerous. The realization came in my first semester at Concordia, when I took “Nonverbal Communication.” I was worried about studying for a 200-level course, but I quickly found that most of the material was common sense to me. I attribute this not only to being the…
I’ve got a couple friends who idolize a classmate’s chin. These girls share secret glances, make jokes, have entire conversations in mutual admiration of this man’s strong jawline. The guy doesn’t know, and if he did he would probably be flattered. But they don’t seem to know him very well: all they know is his…
I made four new friends this week. At least, I think I did. I hope I did. I’d like to discuss that uncertainty. I was walking to my table in DS on Tuesday when I caught a group of strangers, twenty feet away, staring at me. They did the standard look-away as soon as I…
I was going to rant about girls. I’m not proud of it, but there we are. It was going to focus on girls I didn’t know, people I’ve met passing through the Atrium every Wednesday or sitting down to meals a few tables away, and the moments where they’ve met my gaze or haven’t. I…
Someday I plan to take a tour of the United States to see how different people greet each other on the street . My only substantial experience is in the Midwest, where nearly everyone you meet on a sidewalk manages to look at you for a short moment, and to say hi if they’re especially…
Don’t get me wrong: telephones are great. They allow us to throw our voices far out, far beyond the reach of our homes, our faces, our eyes. But with all due respect, Alexander Graham Bell has ruined everything. Sure, there were ways to violate the natural order before the telephone. There’s the letter, employed for…
The walk to 8 a.m. class is the worst one of the day, for any number of reasons. It’s early, of course, and it’s cold – every year I’ve forgotten what twenty below zero feels like. But I wear my warm socks and drink coffee and that’s fine. The walk is long, but I can…