Tisk, tisk my fellow students

By STEPHANIE GROSS

Sophomore, East Asian Studies

As 7 p.m. rolls around on a Thursday, my friends and I stroll into the Asian American Association event that is taking place in the Oakland Center. We’re the last ones to show up, leaving us no choice but to sit in the very back of an extremely crowded room. Being the petite girl that I am, even on tippy-toes, I could barely see.

The event began smoothly with small breaks between each part of the show. That’s where things got a little out of hand.

During one of the breaks, a group to the left of me began talking rather loudly and being somewhat disruptive. The same time as the break ended and an older man with a traditional Chinese instrument came out for his part, but they didn’t take notice.

So now, not only was I unable to see, but I could no longer hear what was going on. Their voices grew louder and people nearby were clearly getting frustrated by the rude display. Finally, one of the directors of the event came over and told them to quiet down. Their silence lasted a split second until he walked away and then they continued to chatter.

It disappoints me that people come to these events physically, but mentally leave their manners at home. Many of us are here by choice, and it is a privilege to enjoy such fine events brought to us college students.

In Katie Wolf’s guest column “Education is too precious to waste on Facebook,” Wolf talked about the opportunities people waste. She talked about students wasting precious money by skipping or sleeping in class. While that is bad, it’s almost worse that people show up to an event that is not required and waste other people’s time.

The moral of this story is to ask students to be respectful to people who actually go to events to enjoy them. Be considerate and think about how you would feel if someone went to event that you wanted to be at and treated it as though they really didn’t want to be there.

These are some of the greatest experiences of our lives. No point in missing out on them by having a conversation that you could have elsewhere.