At my school, every once in a while a geography class will go around the school and dump out all the recycle bins. Sometimes, other classes will take a turn too.
Today, some other class was supposed to do the recycling bins, but because for some reason they couldn't, my teacher volunteered our class instead.
We didn't really mind because it meant no work :) But there were a
lot of bins, and we were a small class, so it took the whole period to get through the whole school. And there are also really disgusting moments, like when you pick up a bin and your hands get all sticky because an open bottle spilled who-knows-what all over the bin. And after you dump everything out, only to find that the bottom of the bin is covered with bits of candy, gum and various other I-don't-wanna-know-
what-that-is substances.
 |
| Yeah, one of these things. Is it called a dumpster? |
Anyhow, while my partner and I were bringing the last few bins outside to the giant recycling box (is it called a dumpster?), we found that one of our classmates, Sparrow (no, that's not his real name), was standing
inside the thing. And then I noticed that he was looking for something in all those papers, and that there was this girl standing outside the giant recycling box, peering inside. My teacher, my partner and I, and a few of my other classmates were standing around, waiting for them to finish so that we could dump out our black-boxes.
It turned out that the girl had lost some of her papers,and she thought that they might be in the recycling bins that we were dumping out. The papers included her notes for a speech, something to do with her art summative, and something else. She said that they were very important and that she didn't think she could duplicate them, so she really needed to find the papers. And Sparrow, being a really nice guy, was actually standing inside the dirty recycling dumpster, trying to find her papers among the thousands of other papers in there.
And the girl just stood there, watching.
After a while, we were getting impatient, and my teacher politely hinted that if she wanted to find the papers faster, maybe she should get in there too. I don't know if the girl didn't hear or ignored her, but either way, she just continued standing there, watching.
To speed up the process, another one of my classmates jumped into the giant recycling box thingy to help search for the papers. Within seconds, he had found 2 of the three items. The girl thanked him, and my two classmates continued to search through the giant mass of papers for the third item.
And still the girl just stood there. Watching.
By this time we were all getting pretty impatient, and the teacher again hinted, though not as subtly as before, that the girl should also climb in there to search for
her own papers.
And do I even have to say it?
Finally, after a long time, the girl saw the impatient looks my teacher was shooting her and took the hint. She again thanked the guys for helping and left.
And that's the end of my story.
Why did I just tell you all of that? Well mostly because the whole thing kind of pissed me off. If
I losed something important to me, sure I might ask other people for help, but I certainly wouldn't just stand back and let everyone else do all the work. The fact that that girl just stood back, relaxed, and watched while two other people got their hands dirty to help her really irks me.
What, was she afraid to get her
own hands dirty? So what? I wouldn't like it either, but you can't ask of other people what you yourself won't do.
And
that, boys and girls, is the moral of the story.
On another note, this is stuck in my head right now thanks to
Sarah ;)
Love ya :)
