Let me give you a situation that happens to me a lot.
I'm walking to my studio class and I'm having a good day so far. Maybe it's because I actually woke up before my alarm. Maybe because when I checked the weather it showed that it was going to be a cool 60-degree day. Or maybe it was because my oatmeal was super yummy. However, I'm walking to class and George Strait is blaring through my earbuds and I walk past a couple people and I meet their eye. So I smile. You should have seen their faces. Some of the people frowned and some looked like I just threw them a mating call.
The way that I grew up and how I was taught by my parents was that smiling at someone you passed wasn't a weird thing or a "let's date" thing, it was simply just a courtesy smile. A smile to just acknowledge the other person that you're passing. A smile that's a silent "hi."
However, when I do that on my college campus people just don't understand or are thrown back by it. Girls give me the "why are you smiling at me/do I know you" glare. Boys either avoid all forms of eye contact or give me the "why are you checking me out/dude she is checking me out" look. The way that young adults act in these certain situations anymore makes me baffled. I want to shake them and tell them that it's okay to smile at someone. It's okay to look someone in the eyes while walking on campus. I don't think it will kill you.
When situations like these come up or I experience them I just want to make a quick trip home and hug my parents. To say thank you for raising me up in a way that something as small as a smile doesn't make me social awkward or something that I shy away from.
Maybe it's that southern Missouri hospitality that seeps out of me but I'm going to keep smiling at, y'all. For one, my parents paid a pretty penny so that I could have a straight smile. For two, I like to smile and it brightens up anyone's day. So show those pearly whites if you want to, weird looks be gone!
