I'm a pretty easy-going person most of the time. It takes a lot to get under my skin. But sometimes people can just be so inconsiderate. This is the root of my most prominent pet peeves as a college student.
Consider exhibit A:
I walk into a classroom a couple of minutes before class begins. There are plenty of open seats, and I am looking forward to getting settled in one of them with my computer out ready to take notes before the bell rings. But The problem with these seats is that they are all in the middle. All of the people who have come in before me have very thoughtfully planted themselves right on the ends of every row. Now I have to strategically try and crawl over 5 people (who surely aren't going to stand and make room for me to get by), careful not to trip over backpacks or kick over water bottles or other miscellaneous items as I stumble through. My favorite part is when people have their little desks pulled out, and I hit my hip on it as I go by. Believe me, this has got to be the most invigorating part of every day. do you see where I'm going with this? Why do people insist on sitting on the ends of rows when they arrive early to class? Why not move to the center right from the beginning, making it easy for late-comers to join? I once had a girl mention to me that she had to sit on the end so that she could get out quickly to make it to her next class. this same girl sat near the front of the classroom, the furthest away from the door, which seemed very puzzling to me. If you are in a huge hurry, don't you think that it would be smarter to sit closer to the exit than plopped right on the end of a row where you block everyone else. Just a thought.
Now on to exhibit B:
I'm walking on campus toward my next class. The sidewalks are littered with people, all headed in different directions. Occasionally this means that you must cross through the direct path of another person. That's alright. the thing that I hate is when I come to one of these moments, and have to completely stop walking to avoid colliding with the other person. It is like they are in the zone, they have a moment by moment schedule to keep, and by slowing down for one second, their whole day will be thrown off. It is as if their day is so much more important than mine that they cannot slow down so that we can both keep walking. I don't why, but this seems to happen to me multiple times a day. It may be an effect of my height-- maybe people don't see me walking there as they proceed to step right on me. But on several occasions, I have not only had to stop to allow another person to pass by me, but have actually had to take a few steps backward to keep them from galloping right over me, taking the entire front of me along with them.
These are examples of absolute inconsiderateness. Is inconsiderateness a word? If it isn't, it should be. I just can't handle this type of rude behavior. We're big kids, guys. Move to the center of the row. Watch where you're walking so you don't step on people. It doesn't seem entirely absurd to me to expect these things. But maybe I am a woman of ideals. After all, we're living in a time when Obama is our president. You never know what to expect.
