The Guilty Taketh the Truth to Be Hard

I have two huge papers due next week. You may have heard this. The panic is really starting to set in, so last night I found myself back at the library, frantically trying to make some sort of progress on at least one of them. So you can see why, while in the very depths of research and information processing, I was displeased when I was yanked back into awareness of my surroundings by a cell phone going off. And it wasn't just going off--it was going off loudly. I looked up to see the poor, embarrassed soul who was surely now frantically searching through his or her bag to find the phone and silence it immediately before it further damaged the silence we were all enjoying.

However, I did not find any such person. Instead I saw a girl slowly remove the headphones she was wearing, hesitate for a second to catch another bit of whatever was on her screen, pull out the phone, look at the phone to see who was calling, and then at last, answer. She showed no sign of embarrassment or even awareness that what she'd done was wildly inappropriate in her current setting. Nor did she make any effort repair the damaged silence by whispering, or, you know, not talking on her phone in the middle of the library.

Furthermore, this was not one of those quick, "Are you here? Ok, I'll come right out," conversations. It was more along the lines of, "Hello? Hey...nothing....where are you?...Mm...What are you doing tonight?" conversations that is obviously not urgent, or goal-oriented, or concise. I sat there in annoyance, thinking surely the conversation had to end sometime. I mean, conversations run out of topics, phone batteries die, people's voices give out...something had to put a stop to this. Then I realized, "Yes. SOMETHING has to put a stop to this. Perhaps that 'something' should be me."

Once the conversation moved from the Thanksgiving plans of this girl and one of her aunts to a description of her favorite Brazilian restaurant in a nearby city that she would like to eat at again sometime, I found myself walking toward the girl. I had no formulated plan. But there was no going back. When I reached her, I leaned down and very quietly said to her, "Excuse me, but would you mind stepping outside while you're on your phone?" (I'd like to pause the story to note that she was watching a TV show on the computer she was sitting at.) She blinked and said in her very loud voice, "Are you a librarian?" Somewhat caught off-guard by the question, I said, "No. I'm a student trying to study." She then said, "I'm sorry, but you're being very rude to me," and turned her back on me.

This must have been rather awkward for her, because she had been sitting facing her computer screen, and since I approached from the left, to turn her back on me, she had to turn and face the chair on her right. I sure as heck wasn't giving up after I'd come so far, and I didn't want to go tattle to the people at the desk. This was MY battle. I had to be strong. So I just stood there. When the girl kind of peeked around to see if I was still there, I took the opportunity to defend myself. After all, I really had to disagree with her assessment. I had not, in fact, been rude. I was purposely NOT rude, as I am very aware of the ineffectiveness rudeness has in inspiring others to change. I told her, "I said 'please.' And this is a library." I felt that was all I could do and returned to my seat.

I heard her angrily repeating our conversation to the person on the other end of her phone, but as I had returned to my studies, I didn't pay much attention to what she was saying. A few minutes later, I saw her walk past and heard her say something but didn't catch it, since I was concentrating on my research. I said, "I'm sorry, what?" She said, "I said you don't have the right to tell me to leave," and walked off.

At last, we agreed on something! Of course I don't have the right to tell her to leave. Luckily, I had not told her to leave. She had simply responded angrily to the request I HAD made of her and chosen to leave. So basically, this was the best outcome that could've been achieved. I went back to my paper and in the next two hours of silence made a tremendous breakthrough on my research. It was a successful evening, indeed!