Study Time Means Quiet Time

As a Mount Royal student for the last three years, I have spent a significant amount of time on campus. Typically between classes (sometimes before or after as well), I spend my time here studying, or working on assignments. My preferred areas to do this are the silent reading rooms. They are great for the large tables readily available, you can eat your lunch in there, and really just have a great, comfortable place to study.

That is, most of the time.

Every so often, some new faces come through and seem to not notice or just ignore the signs that say “SILENT READING AREA”. A handful of times a month, you’ll get a few students who burst in the door as if they are entering a loud restaurant. They yell at each other and laugh obnoxiously as if there are voices or noises that need to be spoken over. While I’m sitting across the room quietly, focused on my work at hand, seeing this is like the gears in my brain coming to drastic halt. I start to feel my heart start beating faster, my face starting to flush. I can’t focus on anything but them.

Most recently this happened to me while I was trying to cram to finish my homework in time for it when it was due, next period. For me, this requires my full concentration. I hear the rumbling vibrations of noise through the window that separates myself, and a group of rowdy teenagers storming through the hall. As I look over at them in disgust, my stomach sinks as I see them heading to the door of the reading room I am in. The five of them crowd together outside the door, and suddenly the volume of their voices goes up ten fold and echoes through the room as the door opens. The group of students finally chooses a seat, of course, at the table nearest to myself.

They don’t seem to notice everyone’s eyes on them. They are too self-involved with each other’s jokes and hilarity to notice how they are interrupting everyone. I’m sitting very nearby, staring right into their eyes, hoping I can telepathically convey a message to them to be quiet. Much to my expectation, my efforts go unnoticed, and they continue disrupting the room. I start to imagine a situation where I walk over to their table confidently and smoothly lay down the law. But of course, that never happens.

So I just sit there, and continue letting their behavior agitate me, until I cave in and pack up all my things and move locations. By the time I resettle somewhere else, time is running short, and I must work twice as fast to get my assignment done. By this time I am still so frazzled, and annoyed that I can hardly concentrate.

It burns me up to admit these people ruin a good part of my day. These are the people I loathe here at Mount Royal. There are so many areas around campus to study and be social at the same time. But for the sake of common courtesy, if a specific location is labeled as a silent area, take the hint.  

A Not-So-Typical Night Out

As most young people do, as soon as my friends and I became the legal drinking age (and maybe slightly before) we were fully invested in experiencing everything the party scene had to offer. It was all so brand new and exciting to us, every night had endless possibilities for adventure. One of our most memorable nights began with our usual group, and our usual bar.

After spending an unknown amount of time drinking our cheap drinks at the house, we piled into the taxis and headed downtown. We were feeling great, feeling invincible. The first half of the night was a mixed blur of shots, loud music, and hollering to be heard at even a foot away from one another. Eventually, we noticed an argument breaking out between a couple strangers and one of our dear friends. Although neither of us had any idea what the context or cause of it was, we were all quick to jump in to help out our clearly outnumbered pal.

Somehow, we all cooled down and started becoming civil to one another. My friends and I were not about to let this group ruin our evening. We said our drunken apologies, and bought a round of drinks to ice the situation. Just as we were about to walk away, someone from the group muttered a rude comment about our friends dancing skills. If there was ever a way to reignite a fire in my friends' eyes, it was talking smack about their dancing.

Of course, the only logical way to solve this was a dance-off. We rushed to the floor and let them have first go. They were impressive, Ill give them that. But they had no idea who they were up against. My friends and I jumped into what seemed like a scene from a corny teen dance movie. As we preformed our typical routine for them, we could see they were blown away. This was not our first rodeo. We were accustomed to causing a scene on the dance floor, sliding through each others legs, jumping off backs, and leap frogging to end in a final pose, all of us gasping for air.

The crowd had by then formed a circle around us, we were the clear champions by the sound of the hollering and yelling. We felt accomplished, and after we high fived everyone, we turned to walk away. It was in that last second my dancing partner made the mistake of looking back to see their defeated faces. In that moment, a hiball glass came flying through the air by a member of the other team, aimed right at us. It hit my poor friend right in the center of the forehead, rebounded at a 45 degree angle upwards, soared over everyones heads, and smashed on the ground.

That was the last night we used our dancing skills to solve arguments.
We realized no matter how powerful our moves can be, glass is always going to be stronger.

Getting the feel of things

Hello world!

Stay tuned for many exciting and insightful posts to come