Hailey Brune – Opinion Columnist

Let me paint the picture for you. It’s the week of midterms. We’re cramming every night and trying to get everything done. There’s a million things to do, and a hundred assignments being crammed into a week. We’re just dragging ourselves to the end so we can have a break just long enough to take a deep breath that’ll get us through the last two months. I’ve been dragging myself to the finish line tied up with a big inorganic test. It’s Wednesday night and I’ve just come back to my room. Outside our door we have a skeleton, his name is Skelly. He’s been hanging outside our door since October. His Christmas sweater was still on since I forgot to pick him up some summer threads.
I turn my head to greet him before going back to my room to quickly eat and go back to homework. When I turn my head his spot is empty, though. All that’s left is his hanger and the piece of tape that keeps his foot propped against the wall. Skelly is gone, alone with his homemade Christmas sweater. Now, I will not repeat what I said when I went into my room, but I can tell you I was seething. During Christmas break somebody stole the paper money my roommate and I made, out of his hand. I didn’t care and just made some new ones. I don’t know why anybody would want to steal fake money made out of post-it notes, but that’s their prerogative I guess.
Stealing my rather large skeleton wearing a few articles of clothing from outside my door is another story. I informed my roommate that some “fill in your best guess and you’d be right” stole our skeleton in the hour I’d been gone. Immediately, I asked the floor group chat if anybody had seen anything, and to let me know if they saw or heard anything. Luckily, an hour later our neighbor found our little Skelly. Someone had thrown him in the garbage in the laundry room. Now, I’m not here to talk about how angry it made me, or to share my feelings on someone taking my things. But I am here to share my thoughts on stealing from fellow students in general.
We all remember the beginning of fall semester. There were things being broken, signs, fire extinguishers, and phones being stolen. We all hear about this and roll our eyes at the idiotic actions of these children. I say children because how can you be twenty-some-years-old and still think it’s funny to be stealing hallway phones. If you do find it funny, then I think somebody needs to pray for you, because yikes.

The school has ways of dealing with their things being stolen. Stealing from fellow students is a different story. First, you don’t know who you’re stealing or messing with. You don’t know what’s going on behind their door and what stress you might be putting on them. Second, we’re all just doing our best to emotionally and financially get through each semester. So, you’re selfish enough to take a little spark of happiness from someone’s life. Someone who maybe can’t replace the things you decide to steal, or are very attached to the things you take. Third, you are around the ages of 19 and 23 years old. That’s it. You’re a whole freaking adult and you think stealing hallway or door decorations is funny, or cool? That’s embarrassing. No matter how many mistakes I make, at least I’m not you.
Now, I know I’m not the only one having problems with theft. A friend of mine, Cerise, had origami on the bulletin board outside her door stolen last month. As well as a picture of her cat. I know other people have had little things stolen off their doors. They’re normally small decorations and such. It doesn’t change the fact that some students think they’re entitled to do what they want. As students there’s not much we can do about it either. We can’t tell campus safety because what are they going to do? Tell us not to decorate our doors or tell us how there’s no cameras in the hallways so there’s no way to find those who are stealing.
We’re left to just hope that the entitled people who decided to take what’s not theirs, don’t take anything else. There’s some problems with cameras in buildings, but it would stop our stuff from being stolen. As well as get rid of the stress of mass fines when a small group of people decide to steal and vandalize from the school. To those stealing, I hope you get caught and you get your just desserts.