Oddbean

That awkward moment when you're just zoning out in a public place and someone turns their head toward you. Your eyes instinctively jump to the movement. Your eyes lock with their eyes. You have a sudden moment of panic that from the other person's perspective, you may have been staring at them. So you quickly avert your eyes in shame and go back to zoning out. GOTO 1

There was a stare challenge a while back that I partook in. It was a confidence building challenge which stated that whenever you locked eyes with a stranger, you couldn’t instinctively look away. You had to stay looking at them as long as they kept eye contact. The challenge was to do it 5 times. One of the hardest things I ever did.

Yeah - I recall doing something similar. It was from a book that you were supposed to work your way through. The title of the book escapes me now. I think most of us have felt the pain of social rejection. Of being laughed at & teased, particularly as children & young adults. We carry these traumas into adulthood until we can clear them. I wish I could remember that book now.

This happens to me sometimes, especially in trains or busses, where I dont know where to look, or what to look at, with my limited vision, as only my left eye works. So I sometimes end up locking gazes with someone and then being kinda like ERMAHGERDDONTSTARE and just panic and look at the next best thing - usually at something outside the window. But ... what do you do when you and someone are looking at the window, and your views cross through the reflection? That's the moment I just feel so defeated, that i stare. xD