I try to believe the best about people. I really do. But then, you go and spill coffee on the floor in the row behind me, and since it's stadium-style seating, the downward grade of the floor helps it find its way to my personal belongings. I try to believe you're not all cowardly, insecure, privileged douchebags, but then not only does the coffee-spiller not say anything but no one at all says anything to me about it, not even giving me the chance to pick up my bag and save the things inside from being ruined.
"You should feel lucky," you think, "that it didn't soak into your iPod, your phone, your wallet, coin purse and headphones, and only ruined one book instead of two. Your notes were spared, and isn't that the most important thing? Besides, now the smell of coffee will permeate your bag for years to come. And look, the girl in front of you has a Louis Vuitton, so it's probably best this way."
Thanks, fellow students, for letting my bag, my book and a jacket I've had for 12 years get soaked through with coffee. You now number among the many hundreds of reasons why I will never assume that anyone is ever going to be nice to me.
All my best,
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Goddamn, college students are the worst. I've never met a group of people more self-obsessed, more clueless or more (maddeningly) self-deluded about how right they are. That's part of the reason I avoided teaching at PSU--I saw my peers being constantly assaulted by students who were pissed that the tests (obviously ones for which students did not prepare) were marked with low grades. I feel like we are, unfortunately, part of the generation of kids who grew up with absolutely no structure, next to no rules and who grew up with the idea that they are special. Bullshit. Part of growing up is realizing that you are a pretty unimportant person, and that you have to prove your worth to people, it isn't just assumed. I'm guessing that the person who spilled the drink probably didn't say anything about it, much less apologize, because they were only thinking about the fact that they no longer had any coffee to drink, not that their actions had any consequences beyond themselves.
This isn't to say that our generation and the generation directly after ours isn't hopeless. I think it just takes us a little longer for us to grow up and realize that worth isn't necessarily an innate thing--it's something we're going to have to prove. And while the students at PSU often complained, they usually did so in the worst classes, ie, the classes that the push-over professors taught. I noticed that the most-loved professors were the ones who challenged their students the most, and who made an effort to assign work that was hard, but creative. I think that might be the most inspiring thing about university--its capacity to broaden the mindset of otherwise pretty self-involved people.
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