Oh my God, please don't stand in the hallways

A photo showing students walking in the hallway of Fanshawe College. CREDIT: BEN HARRIETHA
Hallways are for walking, not chatting. I'm at my breaking point.

This year, Fanshawe allowed students back into the college for class, which is a great thing! My college experience was online, for the most part, so I’m glad to see students back in the hallways. The physical college experience is really important, however, it has made a new issue very apparent.

Now, before we get into this issue, a small disclaimer. I usually try to keep a level head when I write opinion pieces. I think delivering a well thought out opinion eloquently is crucial to getting your point across. I also think it’s a nice skill to have.

This is not one of those pieces. This is a (mostly) serious cry for help.

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I am begging you all to learn how a hallway works. It’s not a place to hang out and chat, we have common areas for that. Bunching up in a group in the hall means that everyone needs to squeeze around you through the small gap your group has now left in the hall. If this happens during a busy time (say, at the top of the hour when classes let out), this can cause a huge hold-up in foot traffic.

Look, I love talking to my friends, it’s the highlight of my day. But the hallway is not the place to do it. Find somewhere else to talk, please. I’m just trying to get to work right now and this is not helping.

And it’s not just the groups of people hanging out and chatting either, there’s other small things that drive me insane when walking through the Fanshawe halls. If you need to be on your phone, step away to the side, don’t slow down to a crawl while checking whatever you need. Or do what I do, which is continue walking at speed and whatever happens, happens. If that happens to be running into a pole, that’s on me.

Another thing! Stop standing in crucial areas of the school! Stairs, for example, are a crucial area. Since the return to physical schooling, I’ve had to ask people to move from the bottom of the stairs so I can get to them a few times. Each time, I receive a dirty look as if I’ve just asked something completely unreasonable. Same thing with doorways, they’re a crucial part of getting around the school and clogging them up slows things down.

Hallway etiquette, as stuck-up as it sounds, isn’t just about keeping the flow of traffic moving. It’s just about being considerate to others while going about your day. Stopping that flow of traffic makes people (me) angry. It’s already a pain navigating Fanshawe with all the construction going on and stoppages only add to the frustration.

This didn’t even used to be a huge issue, but I really think the pandemic and its accompanying lockdowns had a detrimental effect on how we treat these public transitional spaces. Not dealing with crowds for a few years has us all messed up. The first time lockdowns lifted and I was in a large crowd, I nearly panicked. But that doesn’t mean we’re free to be inconsiderate to others.

Making sure you’re cognizant of the space you take up in public spaces isn’t just a school thing either. On the buses, in grocery stores, on sidewalks, any public spot; it’s just polite to make sure you aren’t in anyone’s way in order to make everyone’s lives a little easier.

Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.