The Whoosh

For most readers, this is not a new word and what I am now including in a list of Jen-isms. The whoosh was best known in my early college years, in my freshman and sophomore dorms and with friends, so I cannot help but to dedicate this post to them.

The woosh in all its power.

THE WHOOSH: a feeling that begins in your heart and rapidly spreads throughout your body, mostly in the upper body region (heart –> chest –> arms). It is a more tingly feeling, an exciting anticipating feeling. It happens quickly, but the afterthoughts linger leaving you with a blushing smile that you just cannot help.

I believe that the whoosh comes when one least expects it, which is almost the worst. You can be walking through the mall with your friends and all of a sudden, bam! slapped with the whoosh! Where in the heck did that come from? I was not thinking about him/her, what did my body do? Stop body, stop.

You can get it when you are thinking about someone, but you cannot summon it to make your body feel good. Sometimes its the song, the place, or that thing that reminds you of them that triggers the whoosh.

The whoosh is a pretty consistent feeling, but the outcome is not always the same.
1. You do not have to like someone when you get the whoosh. Or at least, that is what you are telling yourself. So does that mean, you like the person?
2. You are pretty sure you like that person, at least on the verge or committing to yourself that you do and that is when you get the unexpected whoosh.
3. You like the person and you get the whoosh all the time, aka rapid rabbit syndrome, aka lust. ha.

After years of experiencing the whoosh and talking about its effects with others, one thing we did discover is that you do not have to have the whoosh you like someone. For a while, we thought it was one of the staple components to liking someone, but no, it is not necessary. There are a lot of variables why we like some people and why we may not get the whoosh, but we found a pattern that if you are transitioning to friends to potential lovers, you may not have or be able to have the whoosh. The whoosh may be more of mystery bounder, meaning that the mystery of that person you like still holds, or holds more true to people that you do not know as well. You can feel the whoosh for those transitional friends as well, but in most cases, it is less likely.

I need to make it clear that woosh is not butterflies. It is possible that the feeling can transfer into butterflies, but it is a distinctly different feeling. I think butterflies are more of the anticipation feeling, waiting for that person to come over the grass hill as you run towards each other.

Come on whoosh, come to me.
Have fun with the whoosh and much luck to you.

Oh yes, I was telling my brother about this phenomenon and he was saying, no way, I know what that is, but instead he calls it “the feeling.” How original brother. Anyway, I do think its cool that we did have the same concept and came up with a term for it. His definition is posted here with his not as good definition as his sister and the name used in the example is his ex girlfriend.

PS. If you got to the bottom of this post, thanks for reading. And if you have any other ideas, let me know. I am not running out just yet, but I never mind having a few more ideas to keel with.