By Greg Allen
Co Editor-in-Chief
Doors are single handedly one of the most underrated human inventions. Doors provide opportunities. You can’t get interviewed for a big job without going through a door into the corporate office. You can’t buy food without walking through the doorway of a restaurant. We as humans use doors every single day.
We take them for granted, as we probably should because they’ve been a part of our lives for quite some time. They are simple.
However, I have never seen a concept, as simple as that of a door, cause so many problems on a college campus. Springfield College seems to be the mecca for bad door mannerisms. It could be all colleges, but I have never experienced an issue with doors until arriving at Springfield College.
Holding doors should not create problems, but for whatever reason, it does.
Scenario A — Let’s say I’m going to the union for a bite to eat. The least of my concerns should be entering the building. I’m looking down at my phone a good 30 yards from the door, and when I look up there will be someone standing there holding the door for me.
Look, I appreciate your gesture, but now, after a long, stressful day of class, I have to jog to the door so that you don’t have to stand there and wait for me to walk all that way. Then, I have to say thank you, because society has forced us into believing that what you just did was “kind.” And if I don’t jog, I know damn well that you’re going to back to your dorm room and tell your roommate how long I took to get to the door. Thanks, but no thanks.
Scenario B – I enjoyed my slice of pizza at the union, and it’s time to head out. A line of people has also decided to leave right behind me. Out of the goodness of my heart, I decide to open and hold the door for the person behind me. But then, everyone behind that person feels entitled to walk out also. Meanwhile, there I stand like a brick, holding the door for a countless amount of people, none of which kind enough to let the guy who opened the door in the first place go through. Grinds my gears, man.
Scenario C – I get back to my suite, and (per usual) my roommates are being noisy and obnoxious. So I decide to go to the library to get some homework done. As I approach the door, I notice someone exiting. “I’ll open the door for him, he seems like a nice guy,” I think to myself.
I reach out for the door, elegantly pull it open, and step aside, leaving plenty of room for this dude to exit, and what does he do? He pushes open the other door, and exits. BRUH. Let me get this straight… I was kind enough to put you before me, saving you a great deal of energy, and you just use the other door like I did absolutely nothing?? Get real.
And then to top it all off, he looks me dead in the eye and has the audacity to chuckle and say, “oops thanks,” as if he didn’t see me open the door for him right in front of his face.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who has gone through one of these terrible experiences, and I’m sure many readers have committed these heinous crimes. As a campus, we need to be better. Doors should not cause the daily struggles that they seem to here on Alden Street.