Why Wearing Watches is Weird.

          I just took off my watch so that it would be easier to type. I don’t even know if taking off my watch makes it easier to type, but I did it anyway. I don’t even think that my typing skills are good enough to be affected by if of not I am wearing a watch or not. I think that for people that have extreme typing skills having a watch on your wrist would be a factor, but I am just your everyday college student typer.

            I guess that isn’t all that common. Well in today’s world it is, but if you think about it 100 years ago your average college student didn’t type at all. Maybe they did, I don’t know when the type writer was invented, or when it became common place. I wonder if I am the only person who is bugged by their watch when I type.

            Come to think of it, I take my watch off all the time. I just had a voice lesson and I took my watch off when I was singing. I guess that sounds weird, what does singing have to do with wearing a watch? I mean when you are typing you use your hands a lot, so it is understandable if a big heavy watch like mine on your wrist would bother you, but when you are singing you use your voice, which is located in your neck and shouldn’t have anything to do with your wrist. I think for me, wearing a watch makes me feel unbalanced, big watch on one hand and nothing on the other, weird. At least that is what I tell myself. It probably doesn’t offset my weight or balance that much at all.

            Maybe it is for some other reason. Maybe the watch is a distraction. I constantly touch it and look at it, and open and close the latch part. I can’t seem to just let it sit there on my wrist. So maybe taking my watch off when I am singing is just for concentration, and that is why I took it off to start typing. Humans have some weird habits to help them concentrate. Or maybe that is just me.

            I know when I am playing Frisbee and I am trying to concentrate that I stick my tongue out. That is weird, but actually that one is more common. What if I swallow a bug because I am letting my mouth hang open while I am running around the field? Extra protein I guess.

            The person next to me in the library just sat down and signed into his computer and guess what, while his computer was signing in he took his watch off. Maybe I am not the only weird person that watch-wearing throws off my typing groove. Maybe I am not so weird after all. Or maybe I still am and I just need to embrace my weirdness. That is a weird thought.

Why do I wear a watch anyway? I have two watches, one is blue on the face with a gray band and the other is all black but with red hands and numbers. I wore my blue one today because it matches my shirt. I thought it looked cool. I thought that I looked cooler wearing it but it throws off my groove every time I need to concentrate, which is pretty much all day today. Is it really worth it? I like to look cool. I think that is why I bought the watch in the first place. It cost me $12.00, and I knew that I would never use it to tell time. That’s why I have a phone, well at least one of the reasons.

            This whole “being cool” thing is expensive. I buy a lot of stuff because it makes me look cool. Or maybe that is just what I think and I don’t look cool at all. I think that is why a lot of people have smart phones now days. Because it looks cool. I know my mom has one and she barely knows how to use it. She has no ideas what capabilities her phone has. Neither do I but my phone is a dumb phone. It just calls and texts. O and of course tells time.

            I think that I would like a smart phone because they look cool. No other reason. I don’t think that I would be able to use all of the capabilities of the phone, It would just be cool. I wonder how coolness is perceived.

            Come to think about it, I think smart phones are cool but other people might think that they are dumb. Or I guess dumb isn’t the word, dumb is the word I use to describe not smart phones, dumb phones, like mine. What I mean is that I think smart phones are cool because I don’t have one. Other people who have them might think that they are… lame, maybe that’s a better word.

What about watches. I just looked at my watch again and remembered that my brother thinks that this watch that I bought is lame because it is big and metal and it’s not easy to read the time. My brother is cool so he could be right. But that is just the thing, I like my watch and I think that it is cool, that is why I bought it and that is why I put it on this morning. I don’t care what my brother thinks about it I am going to keep wearing it, even though it throws off my singing and typing groove.

My brother is pretty cool. He buys cool cloths, he wears cool cloths, he has a smart phone. I guess that makes him cool right. But really I don’t think that at all. My brother just acts cool. He can wear any cloths he wants and they would be cool because he is wearing them. It is like just an attitude thing. My brother thinks that he is cool, he sends out that vibe to everybody and they think that he is cool. Therefore anything that he does is cool, and anything that he wears is cool.

I think my watch is cool, so If I think that enough I can send off that vibe people will think that it is cool too. Or at least so goes my theory in progress. Honestly I don’t care what people think of me I think that I am plenty cool. I guess even that isn’t true because if it were true I wouldn’t need to say it.

My brother wears tie dye V neck shirts and tight gray jeans and I walk around with him places and people tell him that he looks good. I could be wearing a really nice suit and they would still tell him that he looks good and say nothing to me. Maybe it is because he works out. He works out A LOT. Like every day. But he doesn’t look super huge. He is a little guy that is extremely toned.

Maybe working out just contributes to his coolness factor. The more he works out the cooler he feels, and the stronger cool vibe he puts out. I think I figured out what the “cool vibe” is called, confidence. This is actually something that I think about a lot. Maybe it has to do with being a performer. I perform a lot. I also watch a lot of people perform. It doesn’t matter how much people prepare for something, it matters that they know what they are going to do and they do it confidently when they are on stage. You can spot a less confident performer from a mile away. It’s like that embarrassed feeling you get when you are watching someone perform, you say in your mind, “stop now before you embarrass yourself, o wait you already did.”

Maybe I am just overly judgmental of other people’s performances. I am probably over confident. That’s a lie, I’m not probably over confident, I am over confident. And maybe that isn’t such a bad thing. It makes it so people aren’t embarrassed for me. At least I think that it does.

I will admit that it is a different thing when you are on stage in front of people than it is in just a relaxed hang out situation. When you are just hanging out you can feel super cool, with your watch and your smart phone, but as soon as you get on stage and there are people looking at your, and you take your watch off and turn your phone off, then your confidence is gone and you humiliate yourself. I think that is part of what makes performing so fun is feeling those butterflies and conquering them. You learn to take a huge butterfly net into your stomach catching those butterflies and turning them into confident and cool flies.

O butterflies. I wonder if butterflies feel cool, and give off cool vibes. They certainly look cool, all colorful and flying around. You put them up next to moths and they look super cool. But do they feel cool. Do animals feel? They certainly feel pain, and hunger, but do they feel love and happiness, sadness, coolness? I know a dog knows their owner. But do they love them? I think it is mostly just a sense of security that they feel. They feel secure around their owners and therefore calm. Its as if you could categorize your feelings.

I wonder when babies begin to feel these emotions. I think a baby is the same as a dog. They certainly recognize their parents, they feel secure, but they don’t love them yet. What about a toddler? Does a two year old understand enough to feel love? I don’t think that it is possible to feel real love until you are older, at least 8-9. Then you have memories of experiences, and then you can think for yourself.

It’s probably at that same time that children can start to feel confidence and coolness. That’s when they start caring about what they wear and what makes them feel cool. It’s probably at that time when they start to want smart phones and cool watches and they can feel embarrassed.