An epidemic has spread through the school, and I am not talking about winter colds or flus, nor am I going to mention the groups of people who still stand in the middle of the halls. The ailment of this school is the disability to open the Other Door.

I realize how funny that sounds, but it is entirely true. Constantly I walk through a set of doors and only one is open. According to my observation, students at this school do not have the brain capacity or the Hand-to-Knob ability to open the Other Door. A crowd of people end up going through the one door, the other just a piece of wood standing there, unwanted, unnecessary.

When it comes down to it, people are lazy and would rather wait to go through an already open door than open one of their own. This could lead to a lengthy discussion of conformity and not using your own thoughts to do something, but there are too many students at this school that dress, act, and are exactly like everyone else around them who would argue otherwise and I do not want to get into that right now.

The Other Door is not something to be afraid of, but something to embrace and open. If you take one, maybe two seconds to reach out and grab the handle, you have a little bit of time to get to class instead of waiting to get through the otherwise occupied door.

It is not only the people going the same way as you are, but also the students coming towards you. They need to get through the door as well, and if both or all doors are open, there should not be any traffic. There are other advantages to having another door to enter or exit: you could get to the cafeteria quicker, leave school sooner and even get out of a few classes faster. Having the Other Door open gives you more time and, like me, makes you less tense, because you do not have to deal with the other students who are in your way. Less stress makes a happier student which leads to a happier school, as corny as that sounds.

It is not that difficult and I do not think I am asking too much of the student population to open the Other Door. I would rather not have to run into people by going through the open door because they did not feel like opening the Other Door. Of course, I could open the Other Door as well, but I am a firm believer of going through the right door, just like I drive on the right side of the road and walk up the right side of the stairs. It is just proper that way.