Courtesy.

There are few things I get worked up about. It is my belief that life is too short to sweat the small stuff. I like giving people the benefit of the doubt. All in all, I think I'm pretty easy going. However, there are somethings I will not tolerate. One of these being people being downright rude.

Wednesday afternoon I went to my school's library to read a massive amount for my Introduction to History course. The material is rather dry so I wanted to concentrate the best I could. I made my way to the third floor which is the quietest of all the floors. The lack of computers may or may not have to do with that. Anyway, instead of walking all the way towards the back as usual, I sat in what most consider the "front" part of the library. I'm not entirely sure why I decided to make that change yesterday. It was quiet. Instead of these separated desks that are in the back there were these four seater tables. I suppose I wanted a little more space to spread my reading material. So I sat in the "front" part with the tables. For the first hour this section of the library was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. My neighbors in other tables were also emerged in their reading. One girl was typing away on her cute red Dell netbook.

Then the trouble began. There are tables closer to the staircase, not too far from where I was sitting. From that general vicinity I started hearing people. It would not have been a problem if they had been studying. No. These people were laughing and talking rather loudly. Not jut loud for a library. Just loud in general.

I was getting irritated. Here I was, trying to understand why European philosophers all of a sudden decided that history should be studied in a linear fashion as opposed to circular, and these incredibly rude people were being loud. I looked up and my neighbors were visibly annoyed as well. I had to do something.

I got up and followed the source of the noise. I saw it was four college aged guys laughing and horsing around. I walked up to them in a stride that I hoped demonstrated I meant business.
"Excuse me."
They all stopped talking. As if the mute was on. There were no books on their table.
"Could you keep it down? We can hear you from all the way over there." I pointed towards the other tables.
"Sorry."
I turned around to walk back to my seat. I added before I walked away "Keep it to a whisper; this is a library."

I heard one of these guys say "She's right." As if they didn't know they were in a damned library.

I sat back down, feeling pretty good about what I had just done. I hoped my neighbors appreciated my gesture to keep the silence. I returned to my reading.

Less than ten minutes later, they started up again. I heard female voices this time. Some others had joined them. It did not sound as if they were doing anything remotely productive.

My blood began to boil. Was this Chuck E. Cheese? No, this is a fucking college library. Did these people think they were in a cafeteria in middle school?

I slammed my pen down and walked over there again. Their group had grown to quite a few people, including three girls.

"Obviously you don't know what 'be quiet' means," I snarled. "Have some common courtesy; people are trying to get work done." I may have gotten a little loud. I was absolutely pissed.

I got another loud and insincere "sorry" from these people. Then I went to the bathroom. As I came out I heard one of the girls.

"We should be quiet unless you want to be... rawr." She was addressing her little friends. She made something that sounded like a cat sound.

I did not respond. I felt that I would get aggressive if I did. The last thing I wanted to do was to throw punches at a library. And then get kicked out.

Thankfully they left soon after. I left soon too. These other people came around and were talking. Granted, they were working on a group project and they were speaking quietly. The these two girls sat across from me and were making small talk. I felt the universe was against me reading and muttered under my breath "Fuck this!" and packed my stuff up and left.

It's not so much the Chuck E Cheese people were being loud at a library. I was angry because they had no respect for other's people space. It was obvious that people around them were concentrated on their reading, their papers, etc. There is a reason why there are libraries and why there are cafeterias and lounges. Even after I had told them politely they were distracting others, they continued to be obnoxious. It's hard to believe that college aged people still act like they need to be disciplined. I have honestly never encountered such inconsiderate, rude, disrespectful, immature asswipes.

I did what I could for my crusade of silence in the library. If they had stayed longer I would have had to call security. I would have done so. I'm not going to let a lack of courtesy from despicable people win. It's not about being quiet anymore. It becomes about so much more. In a society where a lot of manners do not seem to matter anymore, I wanted to make a difference even as small as keeping people quiet in a library.

I take comfort in the belief that karma exists. What goes around, comes around. Silly library people.

I shared this story with my advanced expository writing class. We all had a laugh at those peoples' expense.