So you guys are
all going to school vicariously through me, right? Well, from time to
time, I just have to vent about things that I see, just so you can get the full
effect. Today was one of those days. I love
people-watching…”people-listening” is more accurate.
I have four classes this term. I enjoy three of them. For some reason, I have to take a class on how to navigate Microsoft WORD – apparently this is not a class I could challenge. Now, I have been in the work-force for the better part of 25 years. I am a techno-geek and quite well-versed in all of Microsoft’s lovely little programs…I do not need this class. To make matters worse, the instructor is very shy, very quiet and very scattered. There’s no flow to the class and she is quite easily intimidated by the stronger members of the class.
Now, by “stronger”,
I mean downright RUDE. We all have desktop PC’s with the CPU on top of
the desk next to us, so we really can’t see each other when we’re seated.
One woman was frustrated with a particular aspect of the project we were
working on and she interrupted the instructor and demanded that she be
clearer. This was not the first time the woman voiced her displeasure –
she frequently yells out that she just doesn’t get it and that the COMPUTER is
stupid. I understand frustration, but I could not believe that she took
such a condescending, rude tone with the instructor on a regular basis.
Because I couldn’t see her, I wandered by her work station during the break to
see who she was. I was surprised that she was such a tiny little person
because CLEARLY, her mouth was intended for a much larger
person. The instructor was near tears and the woman just sat there,
fuming about how incompetent she was, well within the earshot of the
instructor.
If I were a
stronger, more assertive person, I would have said something, but instead, I
just expressed my disappointment in her behavior by rolling my eyes and shaking
my head as I walked by. THAT’ll teach her!
It is amazing
what one can hear when sitting alone in a room full of people. As I sat
in the common area of the cafeteria today, I heard snippets of conversations
going on around me. One guy was talking about he “never plagiarized
anything in his entire life” and the proceeded to inform his group how he
actually DOES and how he gets away with it. A few tables over, a woman
discusses her “horrible landlord” and how she now has to find a new place to
live. How dare he not like the fact that she dealt drugs “just that
once.” Her speech is distorted because she is missing most of her front
teeth.
On my way to
one of my classes, I passed by a study area where there was a lone girl seated,
books and paper spread out around her. The first thing I noticed was the
two Kleenex plugs sticking out of her nose, which were evidently placed there
because she couldn’t be bothered to blow her nose properly. I have
allergies – I get the constant drippy irritation, but I’m fairly certain I have
never been tempted to just shove a couple of Kleenex plugs up my nose and call
it good. Well…not in public anyway.
Waiting for my
Math class to start, I was seated in the Math Tutor room across the hall.
A young man came up to the table I was seated at, plopped his 5-ton backpack on
the table and let out a couple of deep, rumbling belches followed by several
more, all the while proclaiming, “Woops – ‘scuuuuuse me!” Gross…rude and
GROSS! And I’m not sure what he must have thought when leaving the
house this morning: “I'm going to school in a few minutes....does this
belt look OK with these sweat pants?” Really?
What has happened to common decency, manners and respect? Were these kids born in a barn? Raised by cavemen, maybe? Has fashion digressed so far that it just doesn’t matter anymore? I’m sure I look strange to people, too. I hope not. I think maybe the next time I’m doing my people-listening and I overhear someone giving out their cell-phone number, I’ll text them details of what they are wearing then watch the look on their face…
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