People Watching (blogpost 2)

Descriptions

1. Girls walking with a lot of shopping bags from different stores.
2. Some people had one or two really full bags.
3. A lot of the girls who were shopping had a lot of jewelry.
4. Many of the people shopping were wandering in and out of the stores without buying anything.
5. Many people were eating large amounts of food.

Interpretations

1. The girls who had a lot of bags were buying clothes for themselves.
2. These shoppers placed all the clothes that they bought into one bag so they did not waste smaller bags. 
3. The girls had a lot of jewelry because they wanted to show off their bling.
4. People were looking for clothes that they would like to purchase later on when they had their funds straight. 
5. People were eating a lot of food because they were hungry and maybe it was the first meal they had to eat all day. 

"Parking lot"

• A lot of the girls who were shopping were rich; I thought this because they had bags from expensive clothing stores. 
• The girls who had a lot of jewelry were spoiled.
• People were wasting a lot of their food; I thought this because there was a lot of food that was thrown away in the trash can. 
• People who didn't buy anything were surprised at such high prices.
• People were stealing from the stores; It just seemed suspicious to me how many people would walk in and out so fast of different stores. 
• A lot of people were talking on their cell phones. 
• There were a lot of couples holding hands; a gesture showing affection for one another. 

The biggest lesson that I learned through this exercise is that it is very easy to judge a person or a situation. We (as future teachers) need to try and be open minded know matter what. Too often, people judge other people and try to stick them with a label that they will never be able to change. For example, during this exercise I thought that the girls who were wearing elaborate clothes and jewelry were spoiled and rich. I have no way of knowing if this is actually true or not unless I made the effort to try and get to know these women. Who knows, maybe they were actually some of the nicest people in the world. This exercise really drove home the point that you can not judge a book by it's cover. If more people (including myself) would just try and find good in people right off the bat instead of the bad, then the world would be a much better place. We need to take care of one another. Not judge one another.