Who doesn't enjoy this pastime? What better thing is there to do while surrounded by people but to sit down and observe behavior? As a writer, this hobby is critical to the art of character development. Realizing this at a young age, the mall became my laboratory for observing, analyzing and recording personalities.
Today, I have a bigger and better research lab. I work at a popular tourist destination that is visited by people from all over the world. I have observed cultural differences of people from Australia, South Africa, Canada, Jamaica, Germany and China. I have talked to people from Tennessee, Alaska, California, Wyoming, Louisiana and Maine. Everyday I see people who are young, old, big and small. I have had contact with disabled people from the crippled to the blind. I have communicated with non-English speakers using hand signals and I have struggled to understand people with thick accents.
Even though I observe a lot of cultural differences, there are also many personality differences I have observed. I have helped people who are happy, angry, sad, stressed-out, high-strung, nervous, shy and obnoxious. I have the same set of lines that I say to tourists and I am always surprised by the variety of responses I get after saying my standard speech due to personality differences.
As a writer, I am grateful that I have a summer job that has constant and exciting opportunities to people-watch. Not only am I making money, but I am observing and analyzing the people that I see, storing away thousands of personalities to potentially use at a later date.
So...who wants to come visit me at work now? I promise not to analyze you...too much.
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