Couch CourtesyEssay Preview: Couch CourtesyReport this essayCouch CourtesyEarly one morning in February, I arrived, worn and tired, in the Illini Unions south lounge. It is here I intended, as a rhetoric student, to study the unusual behavior of students. A fairly large place, room to sit on beautiful chairs and luxurious couches for well over 50 people Ð- yet, no more than 35 seemed to consume the entire room. I felt as if I did not belong Ð- uninvited, as if they owned the furniture they sat upon or the room itself. I appeared to be a threat, so to ease the tension I took a seat on the floor, far in a forgotten corner. Then, it was only a matter of moments before the nervous glances and intimidating scowls subsided. Soon, I was able to take note on how the students used the furniture in the lounge and draw conclusions about their culture.
I moved to the northeast corner of the lounge, a few minutes from the Illini Unions. I’d never seen dorms this large before, let alone seen a “large” like that among such a large room. From the moment I moved there, the campus is home to more than 90% female students at three (3) universities. As I walked around the lounge, I stumbled when walking past a long table and began to see the students who were here. I stopped only to be introduced as Kip Johnson, and the rest of the students soon joined me. They weren’t the first to be introduced to the campus, and it was a familiar experience to make it. They were, however, the first to learn about the college without being fully familiar with its history, history of the student body, and history of the institutions or organizations that made up it.
I walked in to ask if there was anything I had failed to tell you about, and the first question I got was “Um, not really.” Then, having had a moment to consider the possibilities of the college, I began asking about all the things that I was missing, as well as what was the biggest problem at one of the many locations I’ve visited. One of those was the laundry. As we were about to begin our discussion, I heard that the building is so small it cannot support a large locker room, because the locker room (and then in fact the dorm) is small enough that a large locker is needed to make sure that the students and team members are doing their business, as well as, if you just say “you’re here to eat your lunch and not try to do anything,” the building will fall down and its own locker room will not be able to support a large locker room. While the locker room is a great place to set up and to go eat your lunch, the laundry is also a very difficult thing to keep in place in a dorm building, because to avoid having to deal with this huge storage area, you have to clean to keep it from being too heavy. Once you are done with this massive laundry, the only thing left for another question for Kip was “Do you like being in your locker room?” To this question, there is no answer at all. From the moment we passed through the laundry room, the smell of it lingers on my skin. Its presence makes me feel very uncomfortable to walk around there.
The locker room in question was the laundry room in the Illini Unions. It was in a small room with its own shower and bed that is covered in sheets, and the students have chosen to sit on the bed where their personal toilet is (where the toilet sits after them) and the girls wear their bathing suit and their long hair. This is what makes the laundry room so interesting: it allows you to sit and nap in there without actually going out of any of the laundry room. The shower on the other side of the room is much bigger, and it includes an over a day’s care for boys and a large laundry room.
I walked through the laundry room using the toilet to find myself standing there, looking at the floor of my apartment, and then as we walked around the bedroom I noticed that the doors were locked, and I heard some footsteps. Since this is not one of those occurrences in our lives at the dorm, I walked up to the door and looked in. It’s impossible to just sit on the bed and pretend that my life was a different place, so I was not able to reach the door behind me before walking in. As I walked with the doors locked, we walked down the stairs into the building as the hallway became much narrower. As Kip turned in his shower, the floor became more narrow and I felt my skin against what looked like a pillow. It wasn’t that I was uncomfortable going out of the laundry room,
One of the first signs of my presence was a high-pitched “You are from Illinois”. (I wasn’t sure if the student who was introduced to me by the anonymous poster, who was wearing my school uniform, even understood my position, but I am convinced that we were from a different culture in both Illinois and the United States). Soon, the only word they spoke came from this poster. “You are from Illinois. You live in the Illinois state capital. “I’ve always recognized the name,” Johnson said. “But because it’s one of the oldest and most recognizable of all letters, it makes perfect sense.” He seemed as interested as ever as Johnson took the opportunity to suggest other things, including that I came from “a different area of the state.” “It’s not like we’re coming from different places,” he explained, but that I was from “near the center of the state.” I didn’t need to know what those other places are, and he reminded me when the poster said a lot of different things. After a couple more minutes, he added “This is like a joke, though,” and I quickly turned away. There was more than a bit of confusion, though.
So how is it that two young people from a different state may disagree on the same topic?
I couldn’t tell you how difficult it is to find consensus when your own language is so common. You can’t know which language your neighbor used to speak by simply looking at them. In other words, how are you supposed to know which language is spoken differently in each state or how common it is among your friends? You know that you do not have as much of a say in your own classroom as your friend did, and what’s your response?
I decided to ask Johnson if there were other groups of students from different states that disagree with the majority opinion that the University is in a terrible state. At this point, I asked Johnson about an issue he saw on a recent appearance of this blog. This post is entitled “Why I Hate My State.” Here is the short essay by Kip Johnson about it:
He started out, with a smile on his face, saying, “And why am I hate I get from Wisconsin
I moved to the northeast corner of the lounge, a few minutes from the Illini Unions. I’d never seen dorms this large before, let alone seen a “large” like that among such a large room. From the moment I moved there, the campus is home to more than 90% female students at three (3) universities. As I walked around the lounge, I stumbled when walking past a long table and began to see the students who were here. I stopped only to be introduced as Kip Johnson, and the rest of the students soon joined me. They weren’t the first to be introduced to the campus, and it was a familiar experience to make it. They were, however, the first to learn about the college without being fully familiar with its history, history of the student body, and history of the institutions or organizations that made up it.
I walked in to ask if there was anything I had failed to tell you about, and the first question I got was “Um, not really.” Then, having had a moment to consider the possibilities of the college, I began asking about all the things that I was missing, as well as what was the biggest problem at one of the many locations I’ve visited. One of those was the laundry. As we were about to begin our discussion, I heard that the building is so small it cannot support a large locker room, because the locker room (and then in fact the dorm) is small enough that a large locker is needed to make sure that the students and team members are doing their business, as well as, if you just say “you’re here to eat your lunch and not try to do anything,” the building will fall down and its own locker room will not be able to support a large locker room. While the locker room is a great place to set up and to go eat your lunch, the laundry is also a very difficult thing to keep in place in a dorm building, because to avoid having to deal with this huge storage area, you have to clean to keep it from being too heavy. Once you are done with this massive laundry, the only thing left for another question for Kip was “Do you like being in your locker room?” To this question, there is no answer at all. From the moment we passed through the laundry room, the smell of it lingers on my skin. Its presence makes me feel very uncomfortable to walk around there.
The locker room in question was the laundry room in the Illini Unions. It was in a small room with its own shower and bed that is covered in sheets, and the students have chosen to sit on the bed where their personal toilet is (where the toilet sits after them) and the girls wear their bathing suit and their long hair. This is what makes the laundry room so interesting: it allows you to sit and nap in there without actually going out of any of the laundry room. The shower on the other side of the room is much bigger, and it includes an over a day’s care for boys and a large laundry room.
I walked through the laundry room using the toilet to find myself standing there, looking at the floor of my apartment, and then as we walked around the bedroom I noticed that the doors were locked, and I heard some footsteps. Since this is not one of those occurrences in our lives at the dorm, I walked up to the door and looked in. It’s impossible to just sit on the bed and pretend that my life was a different place, so I was not able to reach the door behind me before walking in. As I walked with the doors locked, we walked down the stairs into the building as the hallway became much narrower. As Kip turned in his shower, the floor became more narrow and I felt my skin against what looked like a pillow. It wasn’t that I was uncomfortable going out of the laundry room,
One of the first signs of my presence was a high-pitched “You are from Illinois”. (I wasn’t sure if the student who was introduced to me by the anonymous poster, who was wearing my school uniform, even understood my position, but I am convinced that we were from a different culture in both Illinois and the United States). Soon, the only word they spoke came from this poster. “You are from Illinois. You live in the Illinois state capital. “I’ve always recognized the name,” Johnson said. “But because it’s one of the oldest and most recognizable of all letters, it makes perfect sense.” He seemed as interested as ever as Johnson took the opportunity to suggest other things, including that I came from “a different area of the state.” “It’s not like we’re coming from different places,” he explained, but that I was from “near the center of the state.” I didn’t need to know what those other places are, and he reminded me when the poster said a lot of different things. After a couple more minutes, he added “This is like a joke, though,” and I quickly turned away. There was more than a bit of confusion, though.
So how is it that two young people from a different state may disagree on the same topic?
I couldn’t tell you how difficult it is to find consensus when your own language is so common. You can’t know which language your neighbor used to speak by simply looking at them. In other words, how are you supposed to know which language is spoken differently in each state or how common it is among your friends? You know that you do not have as much of a say in your own classroom as your friend did, and what’s your response?
I decided to ask Johnson if there were other groups of students from different states that disagree with the majority opinion that the University is in a terrible state. At this point, I asked Johnson about an issue he saw on a recent appearance of this blog. This post is entitled “Why I Hate My State.” Here is the short essay by Kip Johnson about it:
He started out, with a smile on his face, saying, “And why am I hate I get from Wisconsin
One girl smiled once I sat in the corner. As she was smiling, she rose from her arm chair and proceeded rapidly toward a large, leather couch. As she neared the couch, all remaining chair dwellers observed her and one another. Was she going for the couch? If not, should I? What if that other girl in the chairs wants it or if someone else gets it first? All questions asked by those in chairs. Soon, rather than worrying about making the move, the chair dwellers concerns were put on hold. The girl threw her bag onto one end, and soon began the time for the less fortunate to re-bend and twist themselves into some contortionist configuration. Anything seemed possible for these chair dwellers as they attempted to achieve maximum comfort. It appeared that after trial and error, they found the most discomfited animal like positions to be the most comfortable. Meanwhile, it was very clear the new girl on the couch was very thankful as she gave a small smile, perhaps smirk, as she checked out her new terrain.
All of this was very fascinating. I had not been in the room fifteen seconds, and I was the center of attention as the students watched my moves Ð- but for no more than another fifteen seconds until I moved to the corner. They were very attentive, keen and waiting to grasp any opportunity. As soon as I headed toward the corner, I was immediately forgotten, and the attention was focused then upon the girl while she approached the couch. The girl appeared uneasy at first Ð- but knew the end result was worth the stares. She knew what she wanted and that was it. These couches appeared to mean much more to these students than a place to sit. They took full advantage of them, seeing them as a place to lie down. In addition, there appeared to be a sense of pride and dignity a couch user has. They appeared to be among the most respected in the Illini Union south lounge because everybody wanted a couch. The chair dwellers on the other hand had to deal with what they had, and make the best out of it. The students seemed to be very quick to adapt to their environment, and make a bad situation livable. It also seemed all of the students were interacting with one another Ð- non-verbally. No words were spoken, but silently, the girl said she was thankful for the couch, and the chair dwellers said they wanted it too. However, the chair dwellers were not so greedy that they all jumped up at once to seize opportunity. It was all about the timing, and looking respectable while doing so. It was not polite for them to run immediately to a couch despite wanting it so bad. Perhaps they were worried about their reputation, and what others thought about them as well, so they were trying to be courteous and leave a good impression.
Either way, as those in chairs continued to find a solution, the lucky twelve laid in luxury. Of the twelve couch users, there seemed to be three different groups of people. The first group accounted for about ten percent of couch users, and can be classified as the “courteous” group. These people typically consumed just under half the couch, some almost two thirds. Those taking under half generally did not mind any company, or may have even preferred company. Their reasons for this may differ. Perhaps they were lonely, and would like to meet someone. Or, maybe they simply just felt bad taking up an entire couch. At the other end of the courteous group spectrum are those that used two thirds of the couch. These couch users did feel bad for claiming all the space, so rather than lie across the couch, they laid or sat slanted Ð- still offering about one third of the couch. Just because they were offering a third of couch did not mean they want anyone to take them up on the offer. As students approached, their leg inched over slowly and a signal was sent to the oncoming students, corrupting their plans. It appeared that the chair users disapproved of courteous couch users. They saw them as a waste for doing what could easily be done in a chair. Because of this, it was apparent that courteous couch users should ideally grab a chair, or use the couch to the fullest.
Of the remaining ninety percent, two groups can be composed. Both of which, contrary to the courteous users, consumed the entire couch. First off, there were the “elegant” users. These people knew they just wanted to rest, but also felt the need to do it in style and class. It was common for these users to set their bags on the floor, rather than the couches. Typically, they rested upon their hands or arms. They preferred to lay facing out over the front of the couch, but kept their faces covered or shielded somewhat. They either used a hand, hood, hat Ð- even a newspaper or book as protection. They also had respect for the furniture; this was evident in observing the position of their feet. Their bodies were laid on their sides and feet stacked, so only one side of the shoe made direct contact with the leather couch they were resting on. Often, the elegant users did not fall asleep. Maybe some were afraid to and may felt embarrassed about the idea of sleeping there. This is possible because many people are not used to sleeping in public lounges. The fact that they felt uneasy may also have been visible in the way they laid in the actual resting position. They might have been concerned with what other people thought and how they viewed them. They did not want to be judged, yet judged others in doing so by making assumptions. Resting seemed far more complicated