A Virus Never Dies

My project ended up being a fairly big success and a huge confidence booster. Personally, I do feel like I succeeded in figuring out a way to help the more socially challenged become more open to people; however, I approached it all wrong. I thought this "happiness" was something that could be developed, created out of nothing, yet I called it a "happy virus" none the less. Turns out, it was one and it should have been studied as one. Something I never realized was that this sense of companion euphoria is within us all, but sometimes it lies dormant. We just need that initial spark to flare it up. As a person, I wish I knew this before, then perhaps I wouldn't be this awkward being that I am today, but aren't we all like that? 

I unfortunately was a dingus and volunteered to be the last person to present, so I presented my Ted talk during a time crunch (yikes!), but I feel that I did a fairly adequate job despite the circumstances. I generally don't like talking in front of people, so I tried to go around it by pretending it was an actual conversation and I tried really hard to make it funny.  It took forever to figure out what exactly I wanted to talk about and I avoid making the PowerPoint like the plague because I had no idea where to start, much less when to stop. Eventually, when I got to it, I just jotted down my discoveries and found some anime gifs to complement them. Presenting was a nightmare.... I got stressed out when I realized that I only had 5 minutes left till the bell rang and I knew that my presentation was at least 8-9 minutes long. As a result, I forgot my entire presentation and had to look at my slides for help. The other issue that I ran into was since I had to cut down on my information, I used a lot of fillers and hand gestures because I wasn't filtering through my information fast enough and my conscious kept telling me to "quit while I'm ahead". On the bright side, I finish my presentation in under 7 minutes and I now know not to go last on presentation day. 

The Great Starbucks Experiment!

So there have been questions about my project because all I've been reporting is my interaction with friends. Well, I'm going to talk about my week of stranger interactions.

Day 1: I started this experiment during my morning Starbucks run. Normally, I would walk into the shop, lower my head, and order my coffee quietly, all while avoiding eye contact with anyone and everyone; however, that day was different. I opened the door and kept my head up as much as possible, allowing myself a nervous glance or two. I walk over to the counter and plastered on a moderately genuine smile, preparing myself for the next step.

"Hi there, how's your morning so far?" 😁

She looked taken aback but soon smiled back.

"So far so good. Thanks for asking."

This was the start of a beautiful conversation. Eventually, she had to ask me what I wanted to drink and I decided to be bold and ask her to make a drink based off of the impression I give off. I watched her work for three minutes and was presented with a "café mocha with a shot of vanilla syrup". I was skipping around school the rest of the day. 

Day 2: I once again talked to the barista, but this time, I ordered one of my usuals, a green tea lemonade. I talked to some of the other customers, listened to a couple of "back in my day" stories, and then I headed off to anatomy class. Oddly enough, I was more talkative to my table mates and willing to interact with people. 

Day 3: went off campus with Tabby and ran into some classmates I haven't seen in a while. Due to the lack of interaction between each other, the ill intentions seem to have faltered and we have a pleasant conversation. What happened?

Day 4: A classmate in anatomy noticed I was a lot friendlier and motivated compared to before. I first thought it was the coffee, but I only had coffee once this week. There had to be a reason behind my change of mood. 

Day 5: due to the early schedule of a Friday, I was unable to go on my Starbucks run and my morning just crashed down on me. I felt kind of lonely and invisible all day. Granted, I was avoiding my friends since I was in such a terrible mood, but at the same time, when they saw me, they just backed away because I seemed grumpy. 

On the other hand, I still had to go to Good Samaritan for volunteer work. Surprisingly enough, I felt a lot lighter and relaxed as the day went on, discharging patients, admitting patients, and praying in the surgery waiting room with a Christian family. 

HYPOTHESIS: Although caffine in a great pick me up, it is the social interactions that provide me with that "high on life" feeling. It could possibly be the adrenaline rush from doing something off character, but my body would have already adjusted to it after a couple of minutes and it would have died by now. 

My dear introverts, I have cracked the code to being social!

Questions that came up: 

-Why is it that you're friendlier to strangers compared to your friends?

-Since we have found the key to extroversion, how can we integrate an extrovert into the introverted community?

Results and Operation: A.R.K.

So I eventually got around to hanging around some friends- Star and Tabi, an acquaintance- Kat, and have made some progress in gathering others whom I'm not as familiar with. The results varied greatly amongst the two friends and one acquaintance. Allow me to elaborate each get together:

1st subject: Star and I are friends due to mutual hobbies, mainly singing and kpop. Star is also painfully extroverted while I am awkwardly introverted.asking her to hangout wasn't too much of a chore. Now, I admit, this trial was delay for about a week since she came down with the flu during break (resulting in me buying ramen for her). When we did end up hanging out, I first drove her to a milk tea shop and explained the differences between pearl milk tea, bubble tea, and boba tea (yes, there is a difference). We then walked next door to Marina's Food Market and I gave her a tour around my favorite sections: the ramen, dumpling/drinks, and childhood snacks section. I also asked for permissions to do things throughout the entire trip...  I didn't really talk much about other things besides that and let her do most of the talking. According to my data, we had more of a master-slave relationship in which she told me what she wanted and asked me questions while I chauffeured and provided answers to the best of my ability. I'm not sure how to feel about that. 

2nd subject: Now Tabi is a different story. She's practically sister, my long lost, equally awkward twin, so I was extremely comfortable talking to her about anything and everything. We normally laze around in the school library (I'll be sitting on the floor while she's on one of the couches) and try to study; however, we're bother a little too considerate and aware of the other's presence. Every time we tried to do our work, we get distracted with our own as well as each other's quirks. I'd often ask if I was "taking too much space on the table" or throw slightly guilty glances at her unsandal-clad feet, wondering whether or not I should tell her that it bothers me. On the other hand, Tabi constantly tells me that I don't have to sit on the floor and subconsciously looks at me whenever I start squirming around due to my inability to sit still. As a result, we didn't get much done. Instead,we jacked one of the library computers and watched Marvel Disk Wars. Furthermore, during our breaks and lunches, I've noticed that somehow or another, we start complaining about people, which in turn, is not healthy for a Happy Virus project. 

3rd subject: my only acquaintance at the moment, Kitty, is a little demanding. In her eyes, I am, and I quote, "that awkward, weirdo character in every movie that no one wants to be friends with, but when the main character is depressed or needs something, they're always there for them" (I was not a happy duck when I heard that the first three times). First things first, I was not the one who initiated this hangout, but her. She randomly came up to me and said "you need to take me to Saratoga Bagels for lunch." How does one respond to that without nodding dumbly? Within that process, she was my backseat driver, to the point that she told me where to park and when to signal. While waiting for our bagels, she complained about everything and on the way back, she backseat drove me again. For some reason, I just took it, probably because we weren't that close. 

As a fourth, but unofficial trial, I took Tabi and Kitty to Starbucks. Let's just say that there was a potential cat fight that would have broken loose if I wasn't stuck in between. I had to spot Tabi because she didn't have any physical money on her (which she paid back immediately after she had access to an atm machine), and I had to try not once, but thrice a poorly made, and probably rotten smoothie for Kitty because she wasn't sure if it tasted funny or not (I'm not the biggest supported of drinking from the same staw, but she was). She also insisted on staying in my car when we arrived back at school and left her half empty water bottle and an empty bag of chips for me to clean up. 

As far as I'm concerned, my research has shown me that friends will be more respectable about your property; however, they may also take advantage of certain privileges such as becoming their chauffeur. To be honest, I wasn't very aware that these behaviors were occurring until this project and although I made the subjects happy, not only do they just brush it off later, in return, I am VERY unsatisfied if not unhappy. Apparently, so far, my hypothesis was correct that people do affect your mood regardless of environment; however, the way I'm finding that out is making me depressed more than anything. 

So I came up with a different approach, something less... Emotionally draining.

 I call it Operation: Acts of Random Kindness. With OARK, I use my observation skills in order to determine what kinds of acts to deliver to randomly applied subjects. For now, I'm starting out small, applying it to classmates, providing the following services:

-food/pleasant gift

-a shoulder to cry on and an ear to listen with full, undivided attention

-relief of boredom

This appears to be receiving more positive effects than personal one on one time, but there are some flaws. I have yet to see people "pass it on" after receiving my services, which defeats the purpose of giving them a dose of happy virus. 

I'm still quite confused about how this all works at the moment, and I feel bad that I can't help my fellow shy introverts at the moment. Does anyone have any suggestions on my next move or should I continue what I'm doing right now? 

This Awkward Life of Mine

Hi All! I realized that even though I talked about my project plans and how it was going to be challenging since I'm so introverted, I never did introduce myself properly, so this is going to be a sort of "get to you" kind of deals.

 So yesterday, I had the honor of going to lunch with one of my classmates who will be one of the participants to Project Happy Virus. For the time being, I will refer to her as Miss. Pink, or "Pink" for short. We were going to eat at the new chicken wing shop on Saratoga next to Snocrave during our lunch break and I was super excited to take her there. If only it were that easy.

Pink and I were suppose to meet up in front of Mr. Orre's classroom, but after five minutes of waiting, I needed to head off to the shop. I tried calling and texting her, but I didn't get a response, so I left without her. She'd understand, right? (Wow, I'm a jerk...). I ran to my car (backpack bouncing and everything), turned on the ignition, and waited for everyone to leave like a good little defensive driver. The drive down was alright, but parking was another story.

After finding parking, I walked into the shop, psyching myself up for when I reach the cashier. Here's how it went down:

"Hi, what can I get for you?"

"Uh........................*insert order*" (I ordered two just in case Pink was mad that I left her)

"Just for yourself?"

".....Yeah..."

Anything else?" (Flashes bright smile while I look away)

"Uh......... um... well...... um...... no thank you...."

I sped back to school immediately after I got my chicken. Once my car was parked, I raced to 6th period to find Pink. Thankfully she wasn't mad at me. We spent all of 6th period sneaking bites of chicken and attempting to pay attention to our AP Language teacher's lesson. We failed miserably, or at least, I failed miserably.


Even though this wasn't a formal trial with subject Pink, I must admit that studying amongst the presence of food is kind of difficult, especially since all you do is think about eating your next bite. I'm hoping that my worries are just worries and that my experiments will go as planned, but at this point, I'm not so sure. 

Away We Go~ (but where to?)

Hi Everyone!

So far, I've been researching different settings for my experiment to take place and have officially decided on three settings to try out:

- Santa Clara County Library: Libraries have been rated as one of the best places to study and with the cafe at the side, may be it can be a great hangout spot as well.

- Starbucks: It's the most mainstream franchise around and is always filled with a variety of people, including students. It wouldn't surprise me if the combination of appreciated company and the alluring scent of coffee made studying a little more... bearable.

-Tea Era: With all this hype about PMT, I'm not entirely shocked that this came up right next to coffee shops. Who's to say that you can't read your AP Lang text while feeding your companion a sausage bento along the way?

I've already asked the librarian/shop owners for permission to take pictures and videos, of which they said "okay" as long as I don't disturb others (ha ha, no promises...) and STOP being sick (something about me being a health code violation). If all goes well, I'll be able to start this weekend ^^~~

Now, in terms of who will be participating in my test to spread my happy virus, I needed a healthy amount of people of all sorts of variety (friends, acquaintances, strangers, enemies).  I decided to gather three friends and three acquaintances to aid me, and randomly select a six classmates I don't know too well to play the role of "strangers". If time permits, I would like to test a scenario where I'm with an "enemy" and see if the happy virus will still spread or if the opposite effect will occur (heaven forbid that...).

BTW- There were some people who were uncomfortable when I told them about me filming and taking pictures of our interactions, so I went on a little shopping trip :D ( I might have gotten a little carried away).

Granted, these kind of look creepy and you know that these are all pictures of me, but that's because these were taken at selfie proximity.

That's all the progress I have to report to you all! If you have any questions, please, don't be afraid to ask!!

The Game Plan

Hey all~~

I don't know about you, but I hate the thought of wasting time and think that school is boring. On the other hand, I love being with friends, going to "hot spots", and  fun class activities. A few, if not many, of you guys would agree, am I right? But why?  What is it about working with others that makes things more exciting?

Hypothesis- If you are working together with friends, then like a virus, your joy of working together will transfer into your project.

But there are still so many unanswered questions. What makes the "perfect partner"? Can a "perfect partner" still be considered as so in different environments? How many partners can you have before it is considered too much? These are all good questions, and I am determined to find the answer

My mission for the rest of the semester is to figure out why certain activities make people more interested and to see if this atmosphere can be duplicated successfully in multiple situations such as: studying in the library, working on a project, and hanging out at Starbucks. I will be acting in each setting three times (with a different personality each time) with an unsuspecting test subject friend, and then I will interview them about the experience. Hopefully, I will be able to record and post every interaction on time. Of course, I will be posting about my findings as well as I observe their behavior and try to find any patterns.

As an introvert, I hope to build a stronger understanding of the extroverted world and maybe develop more questions along the way. I understand that this is is a difficult and confusing topic to gauge, but as long as I learn something new each day, I'm sure I'll  be fine. I also feel that this may benefit many, including myself, so all I can say is "good luck" to myself.

Let's see if I can build and spread a happy virus-

Challenge Accepted!