Joseph Sawczak, Class of 2006During my studentship here at UVM, certain things have begun to annoy me. Smokers, people who think they are eco – friendly, and loud, obnoxious drunk kids are on the top of my list right now. I’m getting really tired of hearing kids say things like, “Hey I haven’t had a cig yet today,” or “I haven’t smoked weed yet this week.” Are you kidding me? Do these kids want an award or something? “Hey buddy, I’m sorry you couldn’t keep your Phish hormones in check, but I’ve withheld from cigarettes for about…19 years now. One more thing, you should not be proud of what you’ve just told me.” As I was coming into the dorms the other night from the dining hall, three of these so called environmentally friendly people were outside smoking. What I couldn’t believe is that as I tossed the little chunk of my brownie that I couldn’t finish into the dumpster, one of them actually spoke to me. “Hey man…why don’t you compost that?” I think to myself again, are you kidding me? So I thought I’d ask these three wise men one question and then answer it for them. “Hey, when you guys are done with those [cigarettes] what are you going to do with them? You are going to throw them on the ground. And ya know what? When the snow melts in the spring, they’ll still be there.” Finally, why is it that when some kids drink alcohol they regress into the brains of five year olds and think everything they do is cute? Night after night I watch kids who are drunk in the dorms, walk around and be rude and disrespectful. The police here at UVM don’t help the matter either. Just the other night, one of my friends was telling me about an incident where six kids were being loud in the hallway and were asked by their RA to quiet down and go into a room. Two of the kids did and four stayed in the hall being loud. The cops show up on a call from someone in the dorms, let the drunk, loud kids go into heir rooms after they were rude, and then write up the two kids that were sitting quietly watching TV in their room. The kids that got written up weren’t even drinking, they got written up for having empties in their room. Now I ask, what’s worse for the living environment; four loud, drunk kids in the hall when people are trying to sleep, or some empty beer cans in a kids room. To sum up, smokers should not be proud for not smoking, they are still smokers, people who think they are environmentally friendly should make sure they really are before criticizing others. And finally, if you are being loud and drunk, try thinking of the kid who is sleeping because he has an exam tomorrow that he needs an A on in order to keep that scholarship he’s worked very hard to earn.
