49. Accidentally touching someone's butt while walking

The title of this post was going to be “. . .someone’s hand while walking” because it is way more common, but I figured that when you touch a butt, it is way more awkward.

There are many types of walkers, I notice them every day. Some people like to walk with their arms on their sides, others like to swing their arms around, people sometimes walk with hands in their pockets. Some walk slow, and others walk fast. Some walk with hunched shoulders, and others walk like robots.

On a documentary by National Geographic on Solitary Confinement, I came across information on the importance of socializing. What I found very interesting was that when two people that know one another find each other on the street and begin to walk together, they subconsciously synchronize their steps and walk with the same rhythm. This, apparently, is not enough to keep people from bumping into each other while walking together.

You’ve walked around with someone before, right? Every once in a while, you might walk with someone that struggles with it. Some people have a problem with walking straight and tend to pressure others into being too close to the edge of a sidewalk. Others become easily distracted while walking. These people are usually the ones that bump into you or other objects, so watching them crash into things becomes an every day thing.

But some of us have much more experience walking, so it really throws us off when our hands touch someone else’s while walking. Of course, we have to realize that our hand can be as close as 5 centimeters from another hand while walking. . so what is so awkward about this? Nobody really knows how to address it! Do you make a joke about it? Or do you ignore it, knowing very clearly that the other person is probably thinking the same thing? What about when you touch someone’s butt? While walking, hands are not very far from someone’s behind either, so its bound to happen in your life time.

Things I’ve heard after accidentally touching someone’s butt/hand:

• “If you want to hold my hand, just ask!”
• “Oh, sorry!” (even though it was my fault.)
• “Did you just touch my butt?”
• And my favorite: “Dude.”