I'm a proud "people watcher" thanks to my quiet nature. In sitting back and observing my surroundings and the people around me in the cafe or on my way to class, I've noticed so many fun things. College is just the perfect place for this and it can honestly lead to some pretty interesting discoveries and conversations. There's' no telling what you could see when you take the time to look up and notice the world around you, but it will keep you always looking for more once you start.

I started noticing very interesting people since I first started college in August, and after moving from a place that I'd rarely see this type of thing in, it definitely threw me for a loop. The first person to break me in was a guy walking around wearing a cape/cloak that reminded me of Harry Potter. At first, I thought he was wearing it for an event he was either heading to or coming from, but I kept seeing him on campus months after that and every time he was still rocking the cape. It would be a lie to say that him wearing this cape all the time didn't bring me unexpected happiness. In fact, any time I did get to witness this, it even became the highlight of my day sometimes simply because it was just amazing to witness him rocking a cape and seeming genuinely proud of it.

More recently, I've also had three more cases of situations like this just this past week, each of them equally as uplifting. I saw two on the same day: one guy wearing a propeller hat like you'd see in a cartoon on my way back to my dorm and a girl proudly wearing a unicorn onesie while I was waiting on an advising appointment. It's easy to think of people who may be too scared to leave their room in something like that (myself included sometimes), but other times you just get random urges to step out of your box in this way. The icing on the cake was seeing the guy in the propeller hat laughing along with his friends about it and taking a picture in it. There was just so much joy and free-spiritedness to both of these students that is almost a necessity as college gets more overwhelming than most can handle.

The finale of these recent ensembles was a girl walking behind the student union. What she was wearing led me to believe that there must've been some sort of cultural event or project that I didn't know of since she was in an ensemble that resembled a Native American chief's dressing for me, complete with the headdress and everything. The outfit was adorned in blue, white, and gold and shimmered in the late afternoon sun and I was living for it! I'm still not sure of anything about this one, and for all I know she could've actually been expressing her culture, but it was still breathtaking because I had never seen Native American dressing such as that in real life before.

The reason as to why I've seen more of this lately than ever before is unclear, but still fascinating nonetheless. My only hunch for the rise in unusual outfit choices like those above is the fact that Halloween is less than a week away, which would make perfect sense, but also doesn't account for the past couple of months. You may not realize it, but these people are in a way, doing this to add an interesting twist to their life story, proudly going around with the ability to say that they did, in fact, show up to class in that and they were proud of it. Just think of how many people don't get to share this because they were to scared and nervous of judgment to do this.

Noticing such occurrences around you can actually teach an unexpected lesson: don't be afraid to be different or step outside of your box. There's no better feeling than being able to walk around wearing whatever you want to and not feeling bad about it. This was apparent in each of the people I witnessed recently as I noticed they all seemed to hold their heads high and roll with the fun of it. Each of them had a smile on their face and were clearly proud of their choice in one way or another so follow their example and don't be afraid to try it out. If you want to wear a propeller hat, a unicorn onesie, a cape, or any other unusual outfit or accessory, just do it. Don't be afraid to just let loose and have some fun sometimes!