A Child's Gaze

Children, especially quiet and observant ones, seem to have eyes that are brimming with intelligence and curiosity. It brings a smile to my face when first noticing I've caught their attention. But a feeling of discomfort starts to set in when I glance up, every now and then, to realize that I'm still under their watchful gaze.

Have you ever wondered what a child is thinking about when they stare at you quietly? Are they fascinated by the fact that somebody still wears a flannel jacket? Am I simply scenery as they envision attending Stanford, one of the top dream colleges they read about while surfing the web? Are they bored and asking themselves, "Why is that funny person writing with a pen and paper? Why doesn't he have a laptop like all my friends in pre-school?"

But as soon as I think these things, the little ones break their stare and start beating their Barbie doll's head against an armrest or tug on their black Yu-Gi-Oh! beanie as they smell their shoe. This leads me to suspect that I was just another oddity, providing a child with a momentary distraction on an otherwise uneventful morning.