Moving aside
Oh, no. Everything seems to be going wrong. You dropped your books in the hall, and it took forever to pick them up, and then the elevator wouldn’t come because some idiot was probably holding it open on another floor. After waiting for what seemed like hours, you had to make the decision to sprint up the stairs and down the hall to make it to your next class.
Except that your perfect plan comes to a screeching halt (literally), because there is a group of students walking slowly down the middle of the hall, talking, laughing, joking. You stare at them, aghast. Don’t they have classes to go to? They are moving slower than you thought to be humanly possible. It is impossible to go around them, because they have spread themselves out to form a ragged line across the hallway, and you are forced to clench your fists with frustration and resign yourself to being late.
I understand that people need to talk during passing periods, since talking in class is frowned upon (for some reason). But would it really be so hard to take the conversation to the side of the hallway? If you share your next class with the person you need to talk to, couldn’t you walk to class, and then chat in the classroom before the bell rings?
Those were rhetorical questions to which the answers were both yes, by the way.
Blocking a hallway (or staircase, for that matter) is only going to make others late for their classes or mad at the people doing the blocking. So really, guys. If you need to talk with someone, go ahead. But not in other peoples’ way.
— Michelle Gao