The Sketchiest Place

At the start of the week, we had to write down a time when another person or I changed other people's behaviors just by entering a situation. I wasn't really able to come up with anything that significant because there is no stereotype associated with Asians that involves violence, unlike the ones described in "Just Walk On By" against African Americans. Most stereotypes associated with Asians are related to being good at math and having strict parents which don't really make people scared of Asians, especially on the streets. However, I thought about it a bit more and I finally recalled the times I changed the way people acted and it happened in the sketchiest place in the world: Troy High boy's bathrooms(especially the second-floor ones).

Now you may be wondering why the Troy High boy's bathrooms are sketchy, let me give you a quick tour. When you first walk into the bathroom, you immediately smell a "comforting" tutti-frutti flavor; then, you turn left and you see the four urinals: one has a pile of napkins in it, one has a pile of chewed gum in it, someone didn't flush the other one, and the last one is short so no one uses it. However, most of the time someone is already using one of the urinals and you have to use the unspoken rule of the urinals to pick the correct one. As you are trying to pick the urinal you want to use, you look over to the right and you see 3 pairs of shoes in the same stall, I wonder what could they be doing? Maybe juuling with friends? Every once in a while though, you can be really lucky and the people in the stalls juuls outside of the stalls, and this leads to me to the times where I changed people's behaviors just by entering the boy's bathroom. 

When I enter the bathroom and see people having fun doing smoke tricks with the juuls, I just walk on by and pretend I didn't see anything. However, their reactions are completely different from mine. The more experienced juulers just simply put the juul away and pretend they didn't see me, but the new juulers' reactions are completely different. They immediately try to get rid of the smoke and start walking around nervously in the bathroom while I finish my business. When I walk to the faucet, they realize I'm not going to snitch and return to their normal selves, doing smoke tricks and talking to each other in a thuggish way, like "Waddup, dawg?" As I walk out the bathroom, I think to myself what a wonderful experience I just had in there. 

To be honest, I have no idea why my presence completely changed the way new juulers behave while also impacting experienced juulers' behaviors, but it is very interesting and funning to see the way they react when I see them juuling. 

Have fun in the eighth wonder in the world: Troy High boy's bathroom.