Pet Peeves

In my freshman speech class each semester I make the kids give a short speech about one of their pet peeves. I tell them that it needs to be something grander than people drumming fingers on a desk or rapidly clicking a ballpoint pen, and I also tell them that it can't be a person. I want it to be something that truly gets their blood boiling a bit, so that when they deliver the speech, the audience can see their conviction.

Since these are freshmen I'm dealing with here, this assignment immediately elicits its fair share of groans and whines and complaints from the kids, which leads me to point out that they are demonstrating one of my biggest pet peeves -- people who complain before even trying something new.

Many of them will tell me that they don't have a pet peeve, which is usually stated in an attempt to get out of doing the assignment, but after I give them lots of examples from my own lengthy list (I'm easily annoyed -- I admit it -- and students putting forth more effort in their attempts to avoid doing work than they would if they'd just do the assignment is another of my school-related pet peeves), they all manage to settle on something that irks them at least a little bit.

They are usually flabbergasted at one of my top pet peeves, and it inevitably leads them to want to argue with me about it; however, arguing with the person about what bothers him or her is not allowed. The audience is simply supposed to listen and try to see the speaker's side of things, and as a teacher, I always hope that the kids will come away from this project with new insight into others and understand that everyone is entitled to her own opinion even if others don't agree with it -- but these are freshmen, so that is a bit of a stretch (yet I remain optimistic even while knowing it is foolish optimism).

The one my kids have the hardest time accepting about me is that I am NOT a Husker fan nor do I care one iota about sports in any shape or form. I tell them that my particular pet peeve is that it annoys me when others ASSUME that I am a Husker fan simply because I am a Nebraskan born and raised. I even attended UNL where the Huskers are based, but I did not go there to attend football games; no, I went there to get that important thing called an education, and, frankly, nothing pisses me off more than to be out shopping deliberately on a Husker game day Saturday when the stores aren't crowded (another pet peeve of mine is crowds in stores -- told you I have many) and then to have every single person I encounter in the mall ask me what the score is. I DON'T KNOW! If I gave a crap about the game I'd be home watching it or I'd be at the stadium in Lincoln (after paying enough money to feed my family for a month or more for the tickets) watching it live. I wouldn't be in a mall attempting to buy shoes undisturbed if I actually cared about the game.

Once I share my little tirade with my students, they first all stare at me mouths agape and then they all burst forth with noises of shock and dismay and outrage. How can it be that their teacher, a Nebraskan just like them, doesn't care about the Huskers? How can it be that anybody could dare to have her own interests that vary from those of almost every other Nebraskan? Shocking as it may be to them, there are LOTS of Nebraskans who do not care about the Husker football team or the volleyball team or any other Husker sports team. It's just that most of the others don't speak up for fear that the Husker nation will come after them with pitchforks and over-sized corn hats they'll use to beat them senseless with.

Sorry. I believe a university's main job (just like any school's main job) is to educate its students. The sports' craze annoys the hell out of me because it puts too much importance on the teams and winning and not enough importance on the students and on learning. This has always annoyed me, but I'll admit that the longer I teach, the more it gets under my skin.

That is true of my second pet peeve that I share with my students but which is my biggest pet peeve of all. I absolutely cannot stand it when people BRAG that they don't read. I've already devoted an earlier post to this very topic, but a few things bear repeating. When you brag that you do not read, you are basically announcing with pride that you are an imbecile. People who are illiterate are either unfortunately born unable to learn and deserve our pity, or they are oppressed people who live in horrible conditions where their governments deliberately keep them ignorant to control them and those people also deserve our pity. However, if you CHOOSE to be quasi-illiterate, then you are simply stupid, and you deserve whatever bad things happen to you because of your choice to be that way -- whether it is that you never rise above minimum wage or you never get a promotion but instead have to watch others pass you by or you don't get the girl of your dreams because you have no idea who Virginia Woolf is or any other of the myriad of things that could befall a non-reader.

I can understand not having time to read. I can understand struggling with reading, so it is just something that you don't do much because it is hard for you. I can understand putting off all the pleasure reading you might like to do because there are too many great movies or television programs to entertain you instead. I can understand all the excuses as to why people do not read more; however, I cannot understand the need to brag about not being a reader. Like I said, instead of going on and on about how much reading sucks and that you don't do it at all, you might as well go on and on about how dumb you are and how proud you are of your own stupidity.

I think that the more educated a person is the more easily he is annoyed by the actions of others. It takes almost no effort at all to walk a shopping cart over to any of the gazillion cart stalls crowding department store parking lots; yet how often do we still find shopping carts all over the lots? I have had a lot of education in my lifetime, and all that learning took a lot of work on my part, and I can't wrap my head around just how lazy a person has to be to somehow manage to push a laden cart all the way to her car yet not be able to get it either returned to the store or placed snugly between the rails with all the other carts.

This same line of thinking goes for putting anything away. If you use it, put it away. It's a simple concept. If you borrow it, return it; if you dirty it, wash it; if you break it, either repair it or replace it. The rudeness and laziness of others continues to confound me.

I could go on and on about my pet peeves. Most of them are very minor, but when you get down to it, they almost all revolve around rudeness and insensitivity. Here are a few more:

** People cutting in line.
** Students taking something from my desk without asking.
** People ignoring posted signs like "don't feed the bears" or "dogs must be leashed" or "no fishing from bridge, " etc.
** When people learn I teach Spanish and the first thing they say to me is "Why don't those Mexicans learn our language?" (this one will probably be a future post as it really gets my blood boiling to have this be the first thing said to me)
** People who misuse English and don't even care how they sound, especially when they are one of the same people mentioned in the pet peeve above this one.
** People who litter. Can't stand it. Seriously want to cause bodily damage to the person when I see this happen.
** People who criticize other cultures and types of people they've never even experienced or met.
** People who shove their religious or political views down your throat. Do they really think that is going to make others see things their way?
** People who care only about improving their exteriors and nothing about improving their inner-selves.
** Hypocrites.
** Repeat-offenders.
** Deadbeat Dads or Moms.
** Selfishness.
** Animal cruelty.
** Religious intolerance.
** Sexist prigs.
** Et cetera. Et cetera. Et cetera. (and, NO, I didn't misspell that, so please don't attempt to further annoy me by attempting to point out my mistakes)

Like I said, I have many things that annoy me. I try to be optimistic, but I'm not naturally that way, so sometimes it takes a lot of effort on my part to see the good in things. Fortunately, I have many wonderful students, fantastic children, great friends, fabulous parents and many other phenomenal people in my life that show me every day that the world, while full of faults, is still a great place to be. I am just a picky person, but that has also led me to pick the best people in the world to surround myself with, so I am glad I'm picky.