Being a marketing person, I think I am probably more fascinated by people than most. I always like to study relationships, people’s reactions to situations, and of course, communication in general. I’m even more captivated by people’s reactions to things that are uncommon in their world. This is usually introduced by new ideas or technologies, or simply by different cultures.
My latest study has been even more interesting to me, simply because it also involves me. I have been observing people’s reactions to Darren and my upcoming trip with mounting curiousity, simply because I am so surprised by the wide range of responses we have gotten.
Group A is the easiest – they are enthralled by the concept. Often times the person has done a trip similar to ours, or dreamed of doing it at one time. The person often pauses, and gets a distant look in their eyes, as if they are reliving past journeys. Then they usually sigh and say something to the fact of, “Good on you.”
Group B is a big mosh of the middle ground people. These are the ones who understand the why of what we are doing, but they wouldn’t pick up and do it themselves: either the timing is wrong, or the desire isn’t there. They usually respond with something like, “Do it while you can, cause once you settle down…” and blah blah, I usually stop listening. This grouping is still supportive of the trip, even if they think it’s a tiny bit off the normal scale.
Group C is my favourite to interact with, simply because I think we scare them. These are the people who cannot and I mean CANNOT understand why in the world we would do this. Couldn’t the money be better spent on [insert house/anything else here]? How can you take this much time off? They look at us as if we are about to implode in front of their eyes or perhaps we’ve been taken over by voodoo. My colleague actually asked me, “Why would you want to travel?” And to understand the venom in his voice you should probably say it like you would say “Why would you want to maim small puppies?”
Then we have group D. Group D is group C but with a twist. Our plans are so far out of people’s realm of consiousness that they don’t even register we are going anywhere. In December we will suddenly arrive back to the U.S. and the group will have no idea we would have travelled, much less ask where we’ve been or how it was.
Fasincating don’t you think? That one sentence, “We’re taking 6 months off to travel” could summon so many different reactions. Right now - when Darren and I have explain to our everyone why we are leaving Australia - is a perfect time to gather up all my evidence on these groups.
In the beginning I thought I would be able to predict the groups of people quite easily, either based on age or nationality. And yet, I am constantly proven wrong! I could go on now about conclusions and summaries and blah blah, but I never liked that part of science. I always thought the observations were much more exciting. Who cares why it turned green – but isn’t it a cool green? So, I will enlighten you on my one and only conclusion – nothing so far has been a proof test of how people respond. I guess I just have to gather more feedback. Fascinating isn’t it?
