There is a difference between looking at people when we meet them and staring. You might have noticed people staring at you, and it can be difficult and upsetting.
Most of the time, people don’t mean to be hurtful and sometimes, people might not even realize they are staring. Try and think of a time when you felt someone stared at you such that you became uncomfortable. Did you look at them back? What did you do during that situation?
This happened to me during my first travel since the Covid-19 outbreak. I was at the airport trying to sort my ticket and I just noticed this young man staring at me. At first I thought my eyes just met his and it was nothing serious. But I kept on catching his eyes on me, it was so embarrassing. I had to check my shoes if something was wrong with them. I asked a lady to help check my behind if I was stained or something, none of that. Why are you staring at me? He wouldn’t stop. I asked the person attending to me to excuse me for few minutes, walked up to the man and asked him “is there anything you’d like to say to me? Cos you’ve really been staring so hard, thought you might have something to say”. He looked down, then moved back. He couldn’t say anything to me, instead he just moved away. Yes, go away you irritant!
When I catch people steal glances at me without any reason, I simply focus on their shoes. I stare so hard at their shoes, that they’d think their shoes were bad. Don’t stare at me, it is disrespectful. If you want to make me uncomfortable by staring at me, then I’m left with no choice than to make you more uncomfortable.