Proper Posture

I stand funny. I do. Look at how I stand sometime. It's awesome.

It starts with the feet. My right foot points forward, my left foot points to the left. It's the standard ice skating starting and ending position, called a T-stop because you form a T. I've had people ask if I'm a dancer based on that alone. It's habit. I can't stop it.

The way my feet are make it easy to stick the right hip out. My hand will often rest somewhere between my waist and the top of my hip on the right side. I look like a girl with attitude. I'm not trying to be. It's the way the feet are, I swear. Try standing up straight with the feet that way. Then stick the hip out. Much better, huh? That left leg gets some slack and even more attitude is added to the whole pose.

Then we get to the upper body. I lean to the left. I do. It's natural. In quarter midgets, the Gs would push us (in particular our necks) to the outside, to the right. To counteract this we'd kind of slouch and lean to the left, so our heads would be sticking out the side instead of looking out the front. I sit this way in my car too. It's terrible. Once I settle in for a long drive, I'm practically facing away from the passenger seat, slouched down so I can see maybe 3/4ths of what I could before, head flopped over to the left. Guests ask if I'm tired. I'm not tired. Tired position is when I'm leaning over the steering wheel. Relaxed, comfortable, in control position is racing position. It just transfers into my normal stance too.

My head makes me look confused, I think. Tilted to the left. I'm sure people just think it means I'm listening, but I feel like it's super awkward. I usually don't have a smile on my face, but lately I've found it difficult to keep from allowing at least a smirk to cross.

All this adds up to me preferring people be on my left. Which is fine because I find a lot of people prefer to have me on their right. But it just makes me wonder what you can tell about a person by the way they stand. I'm sure there are sites out there that say if someone stands with their shoulders even it means they are self-assured or if their hands are at their sides instead of crossed or in their pockets it means they are open, but I mean the real stance. The ice skating and racing influenced one. The ashamed of your height slouch. The shy and unsure shoulder hunch. The one that tells a story about you.