The Difference Between Us

   In a talk with my sister, I asked why most girls text with a smiley face like (: while most guys text it like :). I asked why, and the response was that on some phones or on messaging boards, the smiley when written like :) will get automatically change to an emoticon and sometimes it won’t transfer through a text or some people just find it annoying.

   While this may seem silly and frivolous, it brings up to a larger point. Why do most females do this while most males don’t?

   One could argue, as well as my original thoughts, that females just care more than males on this subject. However, there is something to be said on this. To men, shopping is an inconvenience. We go buying, not to peruse, not to see how something looks even though we have no intention of buying the item, not to see if you can find one in your size, we just buy. The closest I come to shopping is when I try out guitars, but I still have a very distinct idea of what I want, and could barely be called shopping.

When I started thinking about this, I stopped and thought  ‘are men really missing out on something’? It saves time to just go out and buy, but what are we gaining from that? The old adage ‘take time to stop and smell the roses’ comes to mind. With life being  so hectic and busy all the time, could people benefit from taking a little extra time on stuff just because you can? The simple  things in life are sometimes the most joyful and can lead to great experiences. For instance, I was able to take a day and just walk around the campus instead of running around to classes and then off to work immediately after, I spent two hours just walking around, enjoying the weather and observing people. 

   I noticed that the people who smoked take time for themselves and socialize with others and appeared to be enjoying themselves considerably more than the people you see walking around with ear buds in, books in hand, cursing because they were running late and had to park a few spots farther than usual.

I talked to a few of the smokers, and after a little while I asked them why they started smoking. Most blankly looked at me for a few seconds and then replied, ‘I have no idea. I knew people that smoked and then I started because it was something to do.’ With all of the obvious side effects of smoking, is it more healthy to smoke and lead a more ‘chilled’ life or run around a stressball constantly worrying about every little thing and taking no time for yourself?

   Time is money, but at what cost?