Where am I? A view from the camera men

The past 2 days we have been collecting data by means of observation for a soc. project. Or that's what the assignment is. Yet the past two days I think I’ve learned more about Stevenson and how I perceive society than I have in past years.  For this experiment my partner and I went to the point to observe students eating lunch. Were most of the tables co-ed? Did more people bring or buy their lunch? Did tables interact with each other? These questions we had to investigate. Before doing the project I never really thought about those things in my own lunch hour. I don’t think I ever looked around and observed if the tables were co-ed or not. I have been too busy with my own needs/ wants and those of the people who sit at my table. I have been like many Americans and have acted indivualist.  I have not applied the sociological mindfulness to my daily life. When we were observing we found that most tables were co-ed and there was a handful of all girl tables but even fewer all guys’ tables. We also found that the friends you sit with can influence if you buy or bring your lunch. We saw many friends in pairs going to buy lunch together. When we were observing we were sitting at one of my friend's lunch table. When we first arrived they asked what we were doing and we told them to ignore us and think of it as reality TV we are the camera men and just go about your regular activities.  After we told them that they did just that. They didn’t question what we were writing or what it was for. We saw the same thing for many other lunch tables, they were not disturbed by the movement and interactions of other people at different tables around them.  Once we left the observation we realized that the table belonging to my friend was unique. It had students from different grades, gender, and race sitting all together. I believe it was the only table out of 35 we saw at the point.  So why aren’t all the tables like this one?  What qualities do these people have that they were able to come together to make such a diverse table? It is hard to know for sure or maybe there is no correlation at all. All I know is next time at lunch I will look around me and take in the surroundings. We come from such a large school yet at times fail to recognize the people and their behaviors that make Stevenson, Stevenson. So next time you go to lunch look around and become that camera man and learn about the people around you.