Chair Paranoia

SPU has some pretty nifty chairs.

Chairs that swivel from side to side, chairs with bendy backs, chairs with mini-desks that sometimes fold down… you name it; we probably have it somewhere on campus. (Except massage chairs—I don’t think we have any of those.)

Discovering these chairs the first week of school was an exciting time of self-discovery. I’m left handed but now I know that I like my chair-desk to be on my right. Because knowing that is essential to my happiness, obviously.

The chairs with the bendy backs are probably my favorite. If I need to stretch I just bend alllll the way back and hope I don’t smash into someone behind me.

However, considering how many pros there are for these chairs, there is going to be something wrong with them. This con happens to come in the form of one word.

Squeakiness.

Chairs are great if they can swivel and bend backwards, unless they get squeaky.

The first day of school I sat down in English, and placed all of my books on my mini-desk. After the teacher started talking I realized my need to stretch and bent my chair back with a SQUEEEEAAAAAK. I sat upright and the chair bounced back to its normal position. The rest of class I tried not to move at all. I didn’t want to my chair to interrupt again.

How embarrassing.

This happens to the swivel chairs as well. It happens to pretty much any chair that can move. If the professor is boring the class it’s rather easy to tell because everyone starts moving and creating a cacophony of squeaks.

I don’t know what’s worse. Having a chair that can’t move and trying to keep myself awake, or having a chair that can move and not being able to move it.

It seems this has developed into a mild case of chair paranoia.

I never know what kind of chair I’m going to get.

But I’m not going to risk looking like an idiot while testing every single chair, so I just have to pick one and hope for the best.