Midday thoughts

I don't really know what causes me to be so contemplative during the middle of any given weekday. I think it may be a combination of my consistent fascination with people, and the bustle of life here in a university setting. That and I always feel somewhat introspective when I am listening to my music and just sitting somewhere. Right now I am in the Plaza of the Americas and as per usual, I am not even looking at the keyboard as I type, I am just too enthralled with the passerby’s and that ever-present line of questioning...the" Who are you? Where do you fit in? What is your role in this place? What is your agenda?" thoughts that invade my brain everyday. So many people, so much diversity...and it's not even the cultural diversity of which we think of first, to me it is more of a personality diversity. Sure the stereotypes are present, the sorority chicks with greek letters emblazoned on their quilted totes, the "freaks" which have become so commonplace that the term is neither derogatory or individualistic anymore, the classic college guys with their striped polos, cargo shorts, flip flops, and fraternity caps...nothing new in this department. Yet, how can so many people made of the same simplistic molds be so vastly different? And a better question yet: why do I get so embroiled in it all? What is it about people that intrigues me so much? Maybe it is the fact that I know interesting people do in fact exist, and that they pass by every single moment, and yet meeting and getting to know one seems so damn near impossible. I think this fact is my painful reality. The ones that do happen to stumble upon our paths always lack something, some unit of character. Maybe, by simply knowing people in passing, in this fleeting manner, a person's sheer intrigue surpasses any flaws and misgivings they may have. Maybe this is why lasting friendships with "interesting" people are so few and far between....because as soon as people pass from simply being a nameless beautiful stranger and become someone with a name, a major, a birthplace... interest is somehow suddenly lost. Ironic how the original yearning to know all about people becomes the one reason they become less attractive and interesting.

But yes, these are my thoughts today, as I sit here and people watch. In the end, this is always my favorite way to spend an afternoon...and people often get in the way of the tasks I should be doing- the studying, the reading of the New York Times, the paper I should have written on my Journalism book....oh well. The diversity here is far too intriguing for me to waste time sitting here reading. And so I watch. And blog. And I think that finishes it for today. Signing off....