You’re Probably Weird Too

Someone has noticed. They just haven’t told you yet.

Photo by Tong Nguyen van on Unsplash

I didn’t know I did it. Looking in hindsight, these subconscious habits exist in full public view, yet hidden from one’s own view.

And nobody watches quite like a child. They observe without filters, what adults overlook or normalise. My little one looked up at me one day, with that careful expression kids reserve for questions in which they don’t know what the reaction would be..

“Why do you say that word every time you sneeze?”

What word?

That word. Every single time.

Kids are observant like that, at unpredictable times. I had been doing it for — who knows how long. Years, probably. A tiny glitch in my system, uttering the same word, after every sneeze.

Now that I know, I have become hyper-aware. I notice it every single time. The sneeze builds, the word arrives right on cue. But awareness doesn’t entail control.

I cannot stop it. The word comes anyway, like a contractual term.

Apparently, I also sneeze with a silencer on — that’s what I have been told. A quiet “chi” — no drama, no long AAAAcchhooos stretching across the room. Some people sneeze like they’re announcing something. Mine is more of a subtitle, with a mystery word quietly appended.

Does anyone else do it? Or is it just me?

On a side note, I don’t think anyone has ever done a study around sneeze styles, why some people sneeze like a loudspeaker and others sneeze like a secret.

I suspect some people enjoy freaking others out mildly. But who knows! (If someone is looking for a PHD topic, here it is, thank me later ;))

My good friend has his own thing. He stands on one leg while chopping fruits. One leg, every time, like a flamingo who decided the kitchen was a good place to show off one legged yoga. I pointed it out once. He looked down at his raised foot with genuine surprise, put it down, and within thirty seconds it was back up again.

One of my other friends cannot put her hands away from her toes when she sits. As if she wants to make sure they are still there. Never told her. Friends can kick, if you know, you know. And I do value my safety.

Makes me wonder, what else am I doing which I don’t know about? Do we all have a “thing” that other people have noticed but chosen not to tell us?

And, why do we even do it??

Maybe it is muscle memory, the body remembering something that the mind has forgotten.

At times, maybe it is anxiety. Anxiety is often described as being too aware of oneself. But, you can be very aware of yourself, and completely blind to what you are actually doing. Some people fidget. Some people smile a little more, the weird smile that doesn’t fit.

So, what do I wanna do about my quirk? The habit was built in some quieter, older part of me that doesn’t consult me anymore.

Do I even want to fix it? Well my habit is pretty harmless. Slightly odd maybe. But we all know how it works. Someone will definitely look at me and bookmark me as weird.

There’s a saying that people are too busy with their own lives to notice what you’re doing. It’s a comforting thought. For most part, its even true.

But lets’ not pretend, spotting something a little odd in someone else is a sport many people quietly enjoy. We note it, categorise it and label it “weird”!

Did you notice that she always does this? Did you see the way he —

Not that I care, it is what it is. Maybe saying a word after sneezing is just an awesome personality trait no-one has standardised yet. I am just ahead of the study.

We all have quirks, some we know, some we don’t. Most are harmless, some even funny. Have you figured out one of yours?

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