Doing Nothing
Williams 1
Nothing.
Was there something on my face? Did a bird excrete on me? Was my pants wet? All I wanted to know was - why was everyone staring at me? Why were they staring at me with one eyebrow raised and their upper lip snared up? I was just standing there. What did I do to get those looks? Absolutely nothing. My roommate and I went to a park nearby my grandmothers house in New York City to complete my task for sociology class. The task was to stand back to back with somebody for thirty minutes and do absolutely nothing in a public place. I thought of the point of this project to be one word, embarrassment, yet I was bold enough to actually do it. As we started the task, it was all giggles until we seriously stopped and did, nothing. At first, people wasn’t paying us much mind because in New York City they’re use to seeing people do weird stuff like this. In my mind, I was thinking that I was going to have an easy report to write by writing about the way I felt and how society just simply ignored me as I was doing nothing because they’re use to seeing things like this and they rather not entertain the “weirdness”. Well, I was wrong. After a while people got nosey. People walked by and asked they’re company “what are they doing?” (as if their company is supposed to know). The funniest things I heard that day was “they must be in a cult” and
Williams 2
“they‘re possessed!” . This old lady stood about twenty feet away from us and stared at us for about five minutes. While she was looking at us like we was doing something, about four more people stood around as if they were waiting for us to levitate. A little girl ran up to us and asked “what are you guys doing?”. My roommate told her “nothing.”. The little girl responded asking “nothing ?” then my roommate kept her mouth shut. The little girl kept repeating “nothing?” as if she was confused and she seemed annoyed that nobody was answering her. She ran away, whispered to her friend and they both
Nothing.
Was there something on my face? Did a bird excrete on me? Was my pants wet? All I wanted to know was - why was everyone staring at me? Why were they staring at me with one eyebrow raised and their upper lip snared up? I was just standing there. What did I do to get those looks? Absolutely nothing. My roommate and I went to a park nearby my grandmothers house in New York City to complete my task for sociology class. The task was to stand back to back with somebody for thirty minutes and do absolutely nothing in a public place. I thought of the point of this project to be one word, embarrassment, yet I was bold enough to actually do it. As we started the task, it was all giggles until we seriously stopped and did, nothing. At first, people wasn’t paying us much mind because in New York City they’re use to seeing people do weird stuff like this. In my mind, I was thinking that I was going to have an easy report to write by writing about the way I felt and how society just simply ignored me as I was doing nothing because they’re use to seeing things like this and they rather not entertain the “weirdness”. Well, I was wrong. After a while people got nosey. People walked by and asked they’re company “what are they doing?” (as if their company is supposed to know). The funniest things I heard that day was “they must be in a cult” and
Williams 2
“they‘re possessed!” . This old lady stood about twenty feet away from us and stared at us for about five minutes. While she was looking at us like we was doing something, about four more people stood around as if they were waiting for us to levitate. A little girl ran up to us and asked “what are you guys doing?”. My roommate told her “nothing.”. The little girl responded asking “nothing ?” then my roommate kept her mouth shut. The little girl kept repeating “nothing?” as if she was confused and she seemed annoyed that nobody was answering her. She ran away, whispered to her friend and they both