Like many Americans, I grew up around people. People talking. People gossiping. People interacting with each other.

It was just natural.

But the thing is for me I thought that I had the excuse to be quiet. I was exempt from interaction with others. I was not obligated to participate, talk, laugh, or frown. I could be a fly on the wall, completely unnoticed.

And yet, is that why I feel so comfortable around crowds of people? At last when I don’t have to interact with them.

So it surprised me when a colleague mentioned how she was overwhelmed with the crowds at Maker Faire this year. That it was too much. The crowds, the people, the everyone. It never bothered me (except the lines for the things that I wanted to do, of course). I felt at home in crowds where I could be anonymous. Where nobody knows my name. And I can, for once, be anybody.