I always get pegged as nice. When I hold the door for a stranger: nice. When I tell someone his backpack is unzipped: nice. When I inform the barista at Starbucks someone left $20 unattended on the counter: nice.
And sure, I’ll take it. Not everyone does those things. But I don’t chalk it all up to niceness. I think of it more as common courtesy. Although I like to think I am nice, more so than that, I am considerate, and more college students should be, too.
It sounds easy enough, but judging by the number of disgusting on-campus bathrooms I’ve opted out of using, the number of times I’ve been woken at ungodly hours by loud neighbors, and the hardships I’ve experienced trying to get my bike out of perfectly functioning bike racks, the reality is, a lot of really nice people are pretty inconsiderate.
“If you sprinkle when you tinkle, wipe the seat cause then it’s neat.”
The nursery school rhyme doesn’t present a difficult concept, but how many times have you found yourself jumping from stall to stall hoping you’ll find the one toilet that hasn’t been visibly contaminated by someone else’s bodily excretion?
If that sentence sounds disgusting to you, good. Maybe you’ll think of me next time you decide you don’t have the time to wipe the toilet seat.
I hate to sound like a princess — no, I don’t — but if you wake me up in the middle of the night for no good reason, it’s an automatic “I hate you.” Sleep is an essential part of success in life, and having an offbeat schedule is not a good reason to write off the fact that at 2:34 a.m. on a Tuesday or 6 a.m. on a Saturday, others could be asleep.
Personally, the five hours of sleep I get regularly are important to me, and I don’t want to hear about your colon or your who-did-what-when-they-were-drunk screaming match. Not even a little bit. If you have a good enough relationship with your neighbors to be able to borrow a hammer or a garlic clove, don’t you want to keep it that way?
College towns make commuters of us all, and whether you bike, scoot or walk around, it’s nice to know you have a way to get where you need to be.
When you’re going about your day with an alloted time to do each of the things on your list, the last thing you need is to feel stuck, literally. If you can’t find a spot for your bike on a rack, it is not OK to lock onto said rack in a way that will make it a nightmare for others to get out.
If you’re riding your bike, you probably know how annoying it is not to be able to access it when you need it. So don’t make it hard on others. If you park in an area that’s typically congested, get there earlier or find another spot. There are plenty of places for bikes on campus. On top of someone else’s isn’t one of them.
These all seem like common sense, but if they weren’t problems I’d encountered more than once, I wouldn’t be mentioning them.
Sure, that time I told the barista about the unattended $20 bill was probably stupid. From the time I opened my mouth to the time my drink order was ready, I observed about seven people walk up to claim the $20. But what if it was the last $20 bill you could spend that week?
While it would be nice to only have to worry about yourself, it would be considerate to remember that you’re sharing this world with other people. Other people who also pee, sleep and commute.
[Marjorie Nunez is a UF journalism senior. Her columns appear on Fridays. A version of this column ran on page 6 on 2/21/2014 under the headline “Manners matter: a common courtesy guide"]
