While walking home Wednesday night, I had a feeling as if I was being followed.  Someone was quick on my footsteps.  They seemed to keep the same pace, turn the same direction and always be right behind me, not by accident but with full intent.  The nervousness and paranoia of being followed is something we have all felt at one time or another.  If we are actually being followed or not, doesn't matter as the feelings evoked are real.

While being followed is a relatable feeling for me, the feelings that come along with following someone are things that I have never experienced.  I decided to follow 2 people, a man and a woman. 

 The woman who I followed first kept checking over her shoulder, giving dirty looks and changing her speed. 

She crossed the road several times, until I could no longer keep up with her.  The entire time I was following her I felt as though people were watching me.  I was nervous she was going to confront me about it and embarrassed that I was trying so hard to keep up with her.

The man seemed to be unaware of me being right behind him.

 I followed him from some time around various locations downtown.  He never once looked back or seemed to change his direction, speed or side of street he walked along. 

I eventually followed him into a sports store where he talked to me while he was waiting for a cashier to help him with a return.  We discussed briefly about sports and what was wrong with the brand of hockey equipment he bought for his son.  Not once did a mention of me following him came up.  I felt calm, just as he was acting.  The act of following him seemed almost normal as no strange feelings came about from doing so.

The act of following someone was rather difficult.  The varying feelings that came from it were, in some part, expected. 

What was most shocking was how the act of giving up control of where you were walking was.  In this case, the act of stalking someones walk took away my power in deciding, where and how I was walking.