As the semester reaches its end, perhaps the most stressful time of the school year is among us. Final exams, projects, and papers that are worth a huge percentage of our grades are approaching their due dates. It feels like we have so much to do and so little time to do it all. Apart from our academic lives, club responsibilities and networking events still consume our schedule. As a result of this stressful time, students are in their own world and, unfortunately, ignoring others. Especially during a hectic time, taking time for sleep, exercise, self-care, and doing our chores can be good ways to focus on ourselves. Focusing on ourselves is definitely important, but being rude to others and not caring about the people around us is an issue.
Recently, Penn welcomed Metro Boomin and Daya for the Spring Fling concert. Spring Fling should be a fun event to help release some of the end-of-year stress and be surrounded by our peers right before the final push of the semester. However, it also manifested the Penn culture of lack of manners and care for others.
I have been lucky enough to attend several concerts in my life, many of which I have had general admission seats to. Being so close to the artist performing leads to people wanting to shove their way to the front, so getting bumped into is an experience I have had. In these events, shoving and pushing through is sadly the norm and can ruin an experience. That being said, I was not expecting to have the same issue at a Penn concert. Unfortunately, I was wrong. You would not expect Ivy League students — who are future leaders and some of the smartest students getting the best education — to act rudely and shove others, despite being told several times by the announcer to take steps back and stop. I was not surprised to hear reports of several students having similar experiences and feeling unsafe at the event, which was supposed to be relaxing and fun. To make things worse, descriptive insults targeting people at the concert flooded Sidechat, and students started to express anger online to attack others.
Spring Fling is just one example of the lack of awareness and care for others during the end of the semester. Although you can see rude actions throughout the semester, personally, I have seen more at the end of the semester. Closing doors on each other, shutting elevators in front of people, and not saying thank you are all small actions that show that students are too focused on themselves. Physically colliding into others, who are strangers to each other, on Locust Walk because students are too focused on their own life is not okay. It is small things like these that can ruin someone's day and show poor character. Other students are also stressed and have their own worries, so being rude can make their lives worse. Having a lot of responsibilities and stress is not an excuse to be disrespectful to others.
It is simple to perform small, nice actions. Holding the door for someone and saying thank you takes minimal effort and are small actions that others can be grateful for. They also show strong character and are ways to make yourself feel better during these stressful times. Saying good morning to staff and security guards are always ways to show gratitude and thanking workers — on Penn’s campus and surrounding business — for their work are simple, kind things to do. So today and every day, remember to respect one another and know that we are a community that should support each other. Best of luck as the semester comes to an end!
ERIC NAJERA is a College sophomore studying history from Rolling Meadows, IL. His email is najerae@sas.upenn.edu.
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