poverty of the soul

Watch romanticized movies like Pride and Prejudice, it gives a view of egalitarian and priveleged society being refined and stately. Columbia has its fair share of the economically well off, after all, not everyone is in the financial aid crowd, what the Columbia elite suffer from however is not class struggle. The shortcomings of Columbia students is far more basic, it doesn't extend anywhere as far as Republican Bake sales, a certain sports columnist's inability to write more than two sentences pertaining to sports, cartoon racism, Columbia's downfall is its students' complete absence of awareness of surroundings and urbanity.

I finished my bagel and orange juice in Ferris Booth this morning, trailing behind a student in a wheel chair. He opened the door and glided through the door and down the ramps of Lerner. I proceeded to throw away my trash and leave. I proceeded down the stairs and out of the corner of my eye I saw the wheel chaired student approaching the door. I walked through and held the door for him; not even one glance at me, no acknowledgement, no thank you, just a smug look as he rolled past me. That hadn't been the first time. I hold the door for the person behind me because that's how my parents raised me, I do it out of courtesy for most people. At what point do people stop saying thank you, as if they expect you to do things for them. Imagine if I had just let the door smack shut into him. Shit storm.

It happened on the way out of Lerner, it happened on my way into EC. This example is just a microcosm of Columbia's lack of politeness. There is also one stop on the NYC subway where subway protocol is largely ignored. Every other stop, the train stops, the people waiting for the train wait on the sides of the door and let the exiting passengers out, not 116th St., people stand directly in front of the door, completely baffled when flustered people push past them out of the train. You walk up the EC ramp, the ramp is easily more than 12 feet wide, should I be suprised that the class that just finished in IAB walks down the ramp engulfing every square inch of walking space, the suits get mad when your shoulders bounce of theirs. You just have to stare them down. You have to wonder why in Lerner nobody has a sense of their surroundings, thinking its a great idea to have a bland and monotonous "Hi how are you, I haven't seen you in so long, how is your self important life going?" conversation in the middle of the stairwell.

I came to Columbia and New York City because I felt that it was leaps and bounds closer to real life than any other bubbled college atmosphere. Although that's been true for me, many still live in their bubble, they don't know who is around them, they don't know where they are, they just stand, waiting for the next character in their solipsistic reality to bump into them. It's not NYC, it's Columbia.