It seems more and more these days people are completely self absorbed. It's pretty rare that I can walk through a store and not find myself ducking, dodging, and diving to avoid people. It's not that the places are busy either. It's just that people are in their own little world and have zero situational awareness. In fact, that's a large part of the reason @mrsbozz and I no longer go inside the store to get groceries. We used to have them delivered to our home, but now we just go and pick them up from the store.
I can't tell you the number of times I have been stuck in an aisle because people are having a full on phone conversation in front of the spaghetti sauce. Either that, or I have to quickly maneuver our cart to give someone the right of way because they aren't paying attention to the world around them. Of course, you know if they were to walk into me it would be my fault!
If I am being honest, my wife is occasionally the same way (don't tell her I told you that though).
However, this post isn't about grocery stores.
As I have mentioned in previous posts, a couple of weeks ago we were down in Ohio for my niece's high school graduation. Since there was a large group of family down there and due to some other reasons, we all decided to stay in a hotel. I already told you how nice the Embassy Suites is, but one of the things that is really nice about it is the fact that it has three elevators.
Sadly, it's pretty rare that all three of them are working at the same time. Despite that, they seemed to be in pretty good order at least for the first half of our weekend. As I found myself going up and down to the seventh floor (that's where our room was) of the eight floor building, I couldn't help but notice similar behavior from a large number of people in the hotel.
It was interesting to see how different people acted when they rode on the elevator or waited for the elevator. It was like the rules of common decency had went out the window. It didn't matter what gender, race, age, whatever the people were, they all seemed to behave in pretty similar ways.
By far the biggest issues I witnessed had to do with proximity to the elevator doors.
For example, let's say you are on the bottom floor of a building and you hit the call button for an elevator to be sent down. You wait a little bit because all three are at various points up the building when suddenly the light comes on to the far left. By now there are several other groups of people waiting with you and as soon as they see that light come on, they all rush over to the left elevator to jump on board.
Can you guess what the problem is?
That's right, if the hotel, hospital, whatever is that busy that you had to wait for an elevator, there are probably people on said elevator coming down. This is where the problem lies. If there suddenly this large mob of people standing in front of the elevator, how are the people that are on it going to get off/out.
I literally witnessed this time and again how people would bum rush the elevator on the ground floor leaving the current passengers no option but to fight through the crowd to reach freedom.
I've actually started to consider the option of giving up those amazing top floor views to be on the main floor or second floor in the future so we can just take the stairs and avoid the elevator all together. It's just kind of sad that people are so self centered these days that they can't take the time to think about the world around them and the other people who occupy it.
I'm trying not to make this a rant because I really don't want to be that guy, but more of a reflective plea for everyone to just be a little more aware of the world around them these days. I know it's hard, there is a lot going on. Things are crazy and getting crazier by the minute. One second of focus away from what you have going on can feel like you are suddenly spiraling out of control, but trust me, you will be okay.
Does it suck if you don't get on that elevator and you have to wait for another one? Yeah, it totally does. I've been there myself. I choose to believe that maybe that delay is the universe saving me from something horrible that may have happened. Then again, sometime stuff just happens.
Either way, let's all be a little more patient and give folks some space getting out of the elevator!
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