One of the best things about hanging around MSU for break is how quiet it is. As much as I love the people I'm around, I sometimes need time to be alone with my thoughts, and breaks are always a good moment for that.
Which is why the caf being invaded by turistas is particularly disappointing.
It's so rare that the caf is quiet during the normal school year, and these turistas are a bunch of high school kids, so on top of wandering around and getting in your way and not apparently understanding how lines work, they also feel they're entitled to be that way. Oh, and their parent chaperons feel the need to yell at the card swipers. Because, clearly, it's the card swipers fault the parent loss their meal ticket.
Watching these high schools students brings some of my worst thoughts about high school back to me. The organization that is here this week is predominately white, and I have only spotted three African American girls and one member whose exact ethnic heritage and gender were unclear to me, but he/she was definitively not white. One of the African Americans girls was sitting alone at a table. I watched a young man, on his way to food, put his hands up as if to be appalled by her, making sure, of course, that his little group of friends were watching and she wasn't.
I never understand how anyone can idolize high school, especially in comparison with college. There's so much more freedom, especially from people who you don't want to be around. The only thing I can understand is being proud of yourself as a high schooler. When I think back to how I behaved, I'm struck by how I mostly stayed true to myself and how important it was to me to stick up for those who I thought were treated unfairly. I know what I would have done if that boy and I were peers.
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