Spring break!

As his spring break came to an end, I asked my friend Kevin how his break was.  By a simple glance at his face, it seemed as if it wasn’t that great.  He responded with a plain “fine.”  He demonstrated the ultimate poker face, “the withholder” according to Ekman and Friesen’s facial expressions.  At this moment I knew it was going to be a challenge to read Kevin’s emotions and expressions, so I tried to dig deeper.  Knowing the insane schedule he has when he is away at school, I would assume his break would have been a time to relax.   I asked, “Well…did you do anything exciting, did you get a chance to just sleep?” He responds, “I feel so lazy when I am home, since at school I am all over the place with military plus art and work I don’t have time to sleep and am constantly busy.”  As he responded his face tilted down with knitted eyebrows, he sighed and his cheeks tightened, all expressing disappointment. 

I asked again, did you do anything exciting? Did you go out? Did you ride your motorcycle? Shooting?  As I mentioned a list of things I know he loves, his face lite up.  His eyes got large, raised eyebrows and he smiled from ear to ear.  As Kevin went on discussing riding and shooting, there was constant excitement on his face; the smile did not move.  I knew I had just learned the “best” part of his break.  While he was discussing shooting he was using his hands, demonstrating the stance he had and how close the bullet was to the target, he got so into it as if he was there again.  These expressions were easier to notice because they were such a drastic change from “the poker face” in the beginning of our conversation. 

In concluding the conversation, I asked him if he was ready to go back to school.  His response couldn’t leave his mouth any faster.  He leaned over with his elbows on his knees and looked at me and responded, “Yes, I don’t feel right just laying around, not doing anything. If I have down time, then I am not doing something right.”  With Kevin now having military background, it is very difficult to read his expressions; he is defiantly a withholder when it comes to serious discussion.  However, as previously mentioned when he is caught up in what gets his adrenaline moving he couldn’t be happier.