Can you trace your stimming back to an event or observation?

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I've been stimming for about 25 years in the same way. Before that, I don't really remember.
But I know I observed my college roommate do a certain thing and I started to do it. A lot. Does anybody know why I would pick up a behavior like this? Is it common?
Did I admire this person? No. Did I want to be like him? No.
He was actually pretty annoying much of the time and I would have greatly preferred never to have a roommate.

I'm sure that it is true stimming because when it happens I can reflect back on how I just got extremely worked up about something, good or bad, or I have been feeling overwhelmed. Recently, I had a prolonged episode of stimming. It was so fast and vigorous it's like it almost completely overtook me. Now I'm laughing because I just thought about how ackward that was, especially given the vagueness of my stimming description and this harking back to my college years. You all have dirty minds and I am inside them. I thought Aspies couldn't get inside other people's heads. LOL.

So, do you have a story about your stimming?

Well, one stim I have is that I swipe horizontally at the underside of my nose with one finger. Kind of like I have a tickle there or something. I can pinpoint the exact day it happened. I used to go to a super conservative and cruel Catholic school when I was younger, and we'd have mass every day for about an hour, communion prosession in front of the entire school, incense and all. One can see how I'd already be nerve-wracked, especially since everyone there (including teachers) made an active show of how much disdain and hate they held out for me. One day, though, I had a nosebleed during the service whilst I was in the choirloft, and thankfully I'd kept some tissues in my pocket. I processed all the way down to communion, all 500+ people there saw me, and when I sat back down in the choirloft, I noticed two of the most "popular" girls pointing and giggling at me. I looked around, frowning, petted around for anything attention grabbing, and then thought to swipe lightly under my nose. My entire upper lip+nostrils were encrusted with dried blood. I was completely mortified, to say the least. (also, since I'm so hypersensitive, amazed I hadn't noticed it sooner!)
Ever since then, I've had a (pretty intense, sometimes) phobia of having something showing in or around my nose, and I swipe often, especially when nervous. It's become a "comforting social stim", in a way. I've also gotten better at controlling/restraining it, but if I feel something could be around my nose, it gets me pretty f**king panicky. haha

Also, I tap/wiggle my feet pretty vigorously sometimes. From what I can tell, that started when I took up a Tap Dancing class a few years back. Happens when I'm stressed, overstimulated, or very pleased.

Regarding "picking up" behaviors or stims, that seems somewhat common. For me, I've always "picked up" on interesting/random sounds or sayings, and sometimes I'll just find myself parroting them back to myself. I also grew up with a parrot, though, so maybe that was /my/ roommate! hahah pretty cool observation, though. The "roommate syndrome" has some definite validity :0

I do not think stemming is something one picks up on from observation. I'm the only person I know who stem's the same as I do. I rock my head while rubbing and scratching my scalp or I will rub my ear lobes allot. I will do this for hours and hours and hours if I do not have something in my hands. Or I can be doing it and not even notice. My hands go straight to my head. I've done this for as long as I can remember. It has caused my hair to be very thin. My mom says I 've done it since I was a baby. It's no different then someone with Tourette's Syndrome. I have gained more control over my stemming as I have gotten older, but when at home I just have to do it.

No, I have always stimmed the same ways, and my stimming is on by default, not because of emotions traced to an event, nor is the stimming itself something that I imitated from someone else.

I tend unconsciously copy some behaviours as well, well only with my mum, she has a nervous habit of picking her scalp, so I started to do it, not consciously but I noticed it eventually. I also have a habit of feeling my pulse on my neck a lot when I am nervous, again my mum would do this because she gets palpitations so I picked that up as well.

its interesting how you pick these things up.