FHS NewsHawk
Manners, please...thank youThursday, April 02, 2009 By Tasha Liptak
There I was, walking through the hallway to my sixth period Spanish three class, minding my own business, when a girl stops right in front of me and starts screaming at someone halfway down the hallway... of course she happened to be yelling right in my ear. But she just stood there, no "excuse me" or "sorry." From what I can see, some teenagers have no sense of manners at all, and it really bothers me sometimes. Especially when someone walks into a store or a restaurant and you are about to walk out and they just let the door shut in your face, rather than standing outside for maybe a minute, just to hold the door open. Even something as simple as saying "thank you" and smiling when someone goes out of their way to do it for you. And if that is even too difficult, making eye contact and saying "hello" is about as simple as it can get. I don't know if there will ever be an explanation for why some teens are so lacking in manners, but if only we could realize how easy it is to use them! And no teenager is anywhere near perfect, manners-wise, because at least everyone does something not completely polite, whether it be talking back to a teacher or just plain talking during class. But I think that if we all put just a little bit of effort into every day trying to be polite, then maybe teenagers wouldn't have such a bad reputation. The first three words that normally come to an adult's mind when they think of teenagers are: loud, obnoxious, and rude. Most of us aren't even close to that, and it offends me to be stereotyped that way when I have no part in it. I know part of it is probably the fact that teenagers have tempers, and fights in school are pretty common. I don't need to tell you that. But it is still true, and I think that if we held in the comments that we would like to say back when someone insults us, it would make people think different of us. After all, what does fighting accomplish in the end? More grudges and fights to come. That is why I walked away from that girl in the hallway. I could have said so many different things to her, I even stopped to think about if it was worth it. But I just kept on walking, leaving it behind me. Even though I was mad about it and complained about it to my friends for a while, I think it was good that I didn't stop and say something because if I would have, I probably would have regretted it afterwards. |