I chose to sit at my desk in my dorm room and observe that environment. I heard birds chirping in patterns of four chirps; the chirps took on different notes, becoming higher and then lower within each repeating pattern. I heard trucks and cars and busses passing by underneath. The trucks had this low rumbling sound. The busses sometimes beeped. I noticed that I would automatically characterize these beeps as annoying. I heard my blinds slamming against the window during particularly strong gusts of wind.
I smelled fresh air from my window and something sweet, like traces of a cinnamon bun. I saw my computer screen in front of me, but around that central vision, I saw my desk area in the peripheral: a green fan and purple lamp to my left, blue sticky notes to my left and right. The light from the lamp illuminated the sticky notes on the left hand side, making them glow a little bit. The buttons on my keyboard were smooth and made little staccato noises as I typed.
I noticed that a lot of these sounds and smells I had just taken for granted because I was used to falling asleep with my window open. The cars and the birds were not things that I registered anymore because I was used to them. I think that is why it is so much easier to observe something for the first time, because you have not build “immunity” to the sights and sounds and smells associated with it.
I smelled fresh air from my window and something sweet, like traces of a cinnamon bun. I saw my computer screen in front of me, but around that central vision, I saw my desk area in the peripheral: a green fan and purple lamp to my left, blue sticky notes to my left and right. The light from the lamp illuminated the sticky notes on the left hand side, making them glow a little bit. The buttons on my keyboard were smooth and made little staccato noises as I typed.
I noticed that a lot of these sounds and smells I had just taken for granted because I was used to falling asleep with my window open. The cars and the birds were not things that I registered anymore because I was used to them. I think that is why it is so much easier to observe something for the first time, because you have not build “immunity” to the sights and sounds and smells associated with it.