Now I can only envy people who are real synesthetes (and wonder about how they function, sensory overload much?), but I think that this is really cool anyway and I feel pretty bad for colorblind people because I can't imagine making sense of life without color coordination. Before I talk about people and colors, can I just say that color coordination is really awesome? I've talked with a few people about assigning subjects in school to certain colors, and obviously this is becoming more prevalent thanks to technology - e.g. look at Google calendar, gmail, etc. and you can see how easy it is to colorganize your life (yes I just made that word up, yes I think it's awesome, no I don't think I'll be saying it aloud any time soon). For example, everything InterVarsity in my life is green, and I think this is for several reasons. First, I just think of green. Second, the green Pancake House t-shirts are the pinnacle of cool. Third, our website used to be black and green. Fourth, it can be both bright and serious and I just think it's perfect for IV. This has gotten to the point that other people's calendars confuse me and just look wrong. So don't show me your calendar unless you plan on its sensibilities being critiqued by me.
Ok, to continue on this tangent since I think it's interesting and this is my blog after all, let's go back to subjects in school and I'll tell you the right colors in case you're looking to colorganize your life some more. Now, I'm one of those crazy twamps who has had my classes scheduled out since June 2009 (the month of my high school graduation) and obviously this requires some color to make sense out of it. So I've since matched some of my notebooks to the colors in my excel course plan, but I was more into the matching notebooks in high school. Anyway, here are the colors and their explanations:
- Economics = purple. Now it used to be a red but since then it's become purple in my mind due to conditioning because I wanted to see more purple in my spreadsheet, and also because math was already red (though a darker one). But I think it fits. I've always considered it as a combination of math and English, and though it's more of math and psychology now that I think of it, this was where the color came from (wherein English is obviously a blue). So it's a combination of red and blue, but it's also fitting, since it's a fairly intuitive science and purple is ALL about intuition and mystery and cognition. But it's also dismal, and purple is kind of depressing when it's in a nice gray shade! So it's basically perfect.
- Math = red. Now this is not a bright red unless it's algebra. It's a darker thing, but it's all about hard rules and following logical paths which is just so red. It's like a STOP sign. But it's also like a fire extinguisher. As it gets more nebulous it gets more gray in my mind.
- English = blue. This is beyond obvious. This is like...incontrovertible fact. I mean. I'm trying to explain it. It's not a turquoise in any way, it's a pretty pure blue; it's about thoughts and words, and cognition is just a blue concept (also pretty gray when it's about intelligence). If this doesn't make sense we can debate it further, but otherwise just trust me, English is blue.
- Psychology = orange. This is another product of my spreadsheet beautification, but it fits the science aspect of it really well. Science you might think would be green, but only environmental science is green, silly! Chemistry is surely a yellow and so psychology makes sense as an orange to me. It has experimental aspects and it's, to me, all about explaining personalities, and some of the most fun personalities are orange, so it's just perfect.
- Government = green. Like a puke green. This is not because I hate government, but seriously, it fits.
- Physics = a kind of purple.
- Sociology = a yellowy-brown.
- Spanish = red (brighter than math).
- Russian = gray.
- French = a custardy yellow.
- Business = highlighter yellow.
- Biology = a kind of brick red.
- etc., etc.
Obviously each individual course has its own shade, but these are the families of colors that I personally associate with these departments. There are several I have omitted for the sake of brevity (lolz at me being succinct) but I do have associations for most subjects by now. But I'm not going to make something up if it's not there. For example, religious studies has a very distinct feel which I want to call a kind of blue or green, but not bright, but I don't have the right picture in my mind so I'm not going to go there. But it's not a seafoam so stop picturing that.
ANYWAY, certain personality types relate to certain colors. They are fairly self-explanatory. They are so useful for making sense of people (it's like that moment you find out someone is the same major as you, and they suddenly seem so much more rational to you. Or maybe that's just an econ major thing). Some people don't have colors and I can't just immediately know someone's color (even if I've known them a long time). Sometimes they change. They're just useful for a time. If this makes no sense to you, then you keep being an aloof auburn or a lofty lapis lazuli for all I care (alliteration for the lolz). But think about it, and perhaps you will start seeing it too.
A quick guide:
- Red is all about robustness and personality and it can be really deep or really silly depending on shade.
- Yellow is super into other people: friendly, helping, listening, being supportive, observing (see it's not all about being talkative or an extrovert).
- Blue is kind of the opposite: it's deep but it has more personal boundaries and likes to stay in its own head. Not necessarily an introvert, but a thinker.
And there are all kinds of combinations and everyone is their own unique shade (and sometimes they're kind of like two colors swirled together which don't necessarily mix; the colors remain distinct and preserve their own personalities). Everything mixes in weird ways. But it is so helpful to figure out someone else's color. It's kind of like learning their secret name (like in Bartimaeus). You have power over them!! But not really anything to be frightened of, it's just the power of empathy.
