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.

The Perpetual Noise Factor

I love college. My life here is wonderful and I’ve made a lot of friends. My classes are interesting enough and I get along with my roommate. Plus the food isn’t too horrible and I’ve taken to eating breakfast every morning (a new habit since I arrived a few weeks ago).

If I wanted, I could make an entire list about the great things that happen in college…

But that would be boring.

There is one thing about college that is wonderful sometimes, while positively suffocating at others. I have named this the perpetual noise factor.

Time does not make a difference—people are screaming or talking or pulling pranks on each other no matter what the clock says.

I’m fine with all of this while I’m awake, and I even find it amusing. I love it when someone is playing guitar, or blasting music out of their dorm window at the height of the day.

It’s a different story after 12:00am.

My floor possesses something called a back parking lot. Which means all of the sophomores park their cars there and come through my floor to get to the elevator. On most occasions they are doing this very loudly and way after quiet hours.

That’s the thing. We do have quiet hours. When I heard this I suspected it meant that people wouldn’t be screaming or talking excessively loud after 10pm.

Wrong again!

I’m really trying to figure out the whole college thing, and unfortunately quiet hours aren’t what I wanted them to be. I was in the hall at 12:30am a few mornings back doing some reading since my roommate wanted to sleep. This girl came into the hall from the back lobby (which leads to the parking lot) and she continued to hold a very loud conversation with some guy on the other side of the door. As if it wasn’t 12:30 in the morning, I was obviously sitting there trying to read. That’s one of the downsides to college dorm life. There are always people around. In some cases that’s great, like when I need someone to hang out with. But I have a problem with people being loud when I think it’s obvious they should try to be quiet.

It’s something I’m still getting used to. Many of you are probably thinking, “welcome to college.”

Thanks! My appreciation for silence has definitely heightened during my attempt to deal with so much noise.

Here’s the thing: people might be noisy, but I’m so lucky I don’t have anyone living above me since I live on the top floor.

I don’t have to deal with the stomping factor.