I’m someone who isn’t the biggest fan of small talk, so instead of talking about the weather this week, I tend to ask personality questions. Sometimes the questions are obscure, such as “would you rather be a bird or a dolphin, and why?”, but sometimes they’re extremely simple and generic. The other day, when talking with my friends at school, I had come to the realization that I didn’t know what all their favourite colours were. Naturally this prompted me to ask them the very generic question of what their favourite colour was. I always find it interesting how this is a question that people always have a clear answer to. With my more obscure questions, people tend not to know how to answer. However, when it comes to their favourite colour, they are always able to answer without hesitation.
People tend to heavily identify with their favourite colour from a young age. Personally, I’m a big fan of the colour blue. My backpack is blue, my ipad case, my water bottle, the list goes on. I honestly don’t seek out a matching colour scheme in everything I own, but I’m always naturally drawn to this colour. When I’m shopping for clothes or room decor, blue items just happen to always be the ones I buy. It’s funny because the more I look around me, the more I notice others do the same thing. One time, when me and my cousins were studying on campus, we all took out what we needed. This included our ipads, pencil cases, water bottles, phones, etc. When I looked at the table, covered in all our items, I noticed that all my things were blue, my one cousin had all green and the other had all pink. Even our bags were coordinating with our respective colours. Having that visual harmony that differentiates which stuff belongs to who was so funny to see.
I find that this colour identity goes even further for people with siblings. I always hear many sister duos refer to being “the purple sister” or being “the pink sister”. This is because when shopping for kids, especially when they’re young, being able to visually seaparate their belongings is important, and for girls, things are usually offered in only pink or purple. I always find this extremely wholesome because you’ll see that people still seek out and identify with the colour they were assigned at a young age. When you’re older, the odds of you mixing up you and your sibling’s belongings is slim, so needing that differentiation isn’t even remotely necessary, yet, people will still stick to their designated colour anyways.
I love to see the impact of our favourite colours when, even as adults, family members buy me and my brother, or even my cousins, matching gifts. Receiving a gift is obviously always appreciated, but having that extra step of personalization is so heartwarming. Yes, I may be 21 and my brother is about to be 24, but please make sure to get me the dark blue sweater and him the turquoise one. I can promise you, if they accidentally handed us the opposite colour, a trade would happen immediately without anything being said.
I’m very much aware that this is such a silly topic to spend time thinking about. However, I just can’t help but find it absolutely adorable. The idea that something that gets decided for you at such a young age, eventually becomes a part of you. In fact, for many people, I would even go to say that it provides a sense of identity and comfort. So for forever and always I will continue to be the blue sister.