We laugh when we are happy and we cry when we are sad. But what do we really do when we are bored? Well, apart from constantly being on our mobile phones? Sitting on a beach, or sipping coffee at a café, standing in the line at a grocery store, or waiting at the airport, and watching the flow of faces pass by mine and beginning to imagine stories they hide, people watching is something we all do, knowingly and unknowingly. 

Personally, I have always loved watching people. Watching people not at performances and plays, but in the most mundane situations. Silently observing people, taking mental notes, weaving stories about their lives, or just merely coming up with reasons—reasons for celebrations and reasons for fights. My romanticization of slices of life I witness around me, which more often than not, are not my own, lead me to find the most ordinary moments truly beautiful in the purest definition of the word. If you watch a person long enough, you start noticing the things that compose them and make them unique as an individual. A slight twitch in the right hand when they think. A nervous tapping of the leg. A shifting gaze. Or the slight smile accompanied by the twinkle in their eye when they think nobody is looking. It is these small, secret things that intrigue me. 

I could sit in a coffee shop for hours, just mindlessly observing people. Doing my work or drinking my coffee, but a part of my mind subconsciously wanting to be a part of the conversation that the old couple next to me is having and wanting to relive their days along with them, another part of me wondering what went so terribly wrong with the teenage girl who was sobbing uncontrollably on the metro and wanting to hug her tight and yet another part of me wondering if the man at the airport who kept looking at his watch would make it in time for his daughter’s first birthday. 

They say we are a sum total of everyone around us—the people we meet and the people we do not. I still wear a heart locket that I once saw a young girl wear at the mall and could not take my eyes off. I still apply my eyeliner the way I saw a group of girls in the club washroom doing. I still tie my hair up in a bun like the woman on the same train as me. I still rub a drop or two of vanilla essence on the inside of my wrists and at the back of my ear like I saw my mother’s friend do ages ago. So many things I do and practices I follow have been picked up from people I have seen just once in my entire lifetime. 

People watching is not so much about being “creepy” or “intrusive” but more so about observing people’s behaviour and learning from them. Human behaviour, from what we see and observe from others, can be very revealing. We learn to notice elements of the lives of others that even their near and dear ones would have looked past. We notice things they do differently and things that they could do differently. We either learn to appreciate or find fault in our own lives after looking at theirs, but is taking a new learning back home not the most important at the end of the day? 

When I am watching people, I am merely a silent witness to a very small fraction of their life. With a little dust of my imagination and a sprinkle of my creativity, I can take whatever little I observe and create an entire picture, putting all the pieces together like the fragments of a jigsaw puzzle, because ultimately what would life be without all this? 

Everyone has their own story, whether they choose to tell it or not. These stories hold value and meaning. I get to imagine theirs while fulfilling mine because who would we be without our stories? I find myself, amongst all these people — a grain of sand on a beach. It gives me perspective and reason to step out of my bubble—an insight into their lives. There is a sense of comfort in knowing that I am not alone and my story is not the only story. 

As children, we grow up learning from watching others and trying to do what they do. Then what stops us from doing the same when we become full grown adults? Next time you find yourself surrounded by people or bored in a social setting, resist the urge to stare at a man-made screen and look up instead. Life does not happen to you, but for you. Lessons can be found in everyone’s story.