As I was skating home from work yesterday on the Boulder bike path, I swallowed a fly. At least I think it was a fly. In any case, I did not subsequently swallow a spider. I did however stop skating to hack and cough for a minute or two.
Shockingly a woman skated (yes, also with inline speedskates) up to me and asked if I was ok. I rambled on briefly about the fly and quickly recovered. She said had been trying to catch up to me for about the last mile; apparently there are not too many people that she has seen on inline speedskates in Boulder. While that somewhat shocked me, as Boulder seems to have large factions of all obscure sports/activities, it made me realize how much I (and likely many others) associate ourselves with the activities we enjoy. For example, as the young woman and I discussed the looks we get from cyclists I realized that even though I bike far more often than skate I was associating myself as a speedskater. Looking back at the almost two decades I played hockey, I coupled myself the persona. Not that I really fit any of them, but I did nothing to discourage people from associating me with the stereotypes. And whenever in random conversation I meet someone who also played hockey, we seem to have an instant comradery.
Why do we do this? Obviously just because one participates in a certain activities does not mean that we will have compatible personalities or interests outside of the one activity we initially connected with. Thoughts?