When did your bag become more important than me?

If you’ve ever taken a bus or subway, you know that people like to take two seats for themselves: one for their butts, one for their belongings. Most decent people will move their stuff if they see someone looking for a place to sit. Then there’s the dumbasses that have no consideration for others and pretend like they don’t see you.

I’m one of the people who has no problem expecting you to move your things to make way for me. After all, unless you paid for two seats, you sure as hell aren’t getting them when it’s standing room only.

It happens on public transit, even in airport terminals when passenger bags are suddenly too good for the floor and take up seats instead of humans.

Once I was at the gym and a guy was sitting on a stool and had body lotions, cellphone and water bottle taking up two other stools, forcing people to stand to get dressed and do a balancing act while putting on socks. I had no problem saying, “Can people use these or…?” I might have got a dirty look but at least he apologized. Lesson learned? Here’s hoping the guy will be more considerate in the future.

I’ve even seen some people get so frustrated that they actually pick up the offender’s belonging and hand it to them to make room for themselves. That’s ballsy. I’ve never gone to that extreme but I will tersely say, “Excuse me” and imply they need to move their stuff for me.

Sometimes people needing a seat aren’t so vocal about it. People will walk right by or give side glare every few minutes to see if the oblivious seat hogger has come to their senses and acknowledged another person’s existence. That usually isn’t enough to get the message across.

Perhaps this happens because we live in a “me” world and people only think of themselves. People are in their own little bubble and are so consumed with their own comfort that they fail to be good to those around them.

How many times have you hurried to a door only to have the person in front let it close right behind them? A door in the face is rude – ruder if the person doesn’t turn around to apologize for it.

Having a little consideration might be one step closer for us living in a decent society again. It’s the little things that sometimes make a big difference.

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