Starting Out

Hi there all you fellow bloggers. I'm an 18 year old Media Student who loves to write and has recently been learning about the new craze known as 'blogging'. Our teacher has suggested we each create our own blogs so that we may better understand how they work.

My aim at the end of my studies is to hopefully become a columnist for a niche market (which market that is, I'm still undecided). I'm also really interested in opinion writing and have decided that this blog will be opinion based.


Today's topic: The Onlookers and Their Assumptions.

I was on my way home from the city today on the train with my boyfriend. As previously mentioned I am 18 years old, my boyfriend is 20. We were sitting next to one another, listening to Oasis' 'Wonderwall' on my Ipod. As a fairly new couple, the physical affection is still going pretty strong, he had his arm around me, so needless to say we were looking pretty cosy. Earlier in the day I had purchased a parenting magazine to have a read through, as I will be doing work experience at their head office next week. I decided to take out the magazine and have a flick through to get a basic idea of its layout.

I noticed an older lady sitting opposite us earlier who had given us a smile, and had continued to observe us from then on. I glanced over at her and saw a look of shock on her face. I wondered what could be wrong. Then suddenly, *lightbulb*.. An 18 year old girl and her 20 year old boyfriend on the train reading through a parenting magazine.

I smiled to myself thinking how odd this must have looked but not really too concerned with this strangers assumption. How often do we look at strangers and automatically assume something about them? This is something i've been thinking about quite alot lately, as the area I study in seems to have a high rate of young mothers.. or so I assume.

When we see a young girl pushing a pram, or carrying a baby, why do we simply assume she's a single mother who's gotten herself into trouble somewhere along the way? Why can't she just be a big sister, a baby sitter, a cousin even? Why is it that our society is so quick to make judgements about strangers and passers by?