for a random Emory student. I was going into the Cox computer lab, and like it was the most natural thing, I held the door open for the student who was exiting. She walked through the opposite door. So after awkwardly standing at the entrance with a door held open for no one but myself, I finally went inside. I swiped my card (which still somehow feels unnatural), and sat down on some cushions in a room full of people I don't know to read my German lit book aloud to myself.
But I kept thinking of that stupid door. I didn't blame her for walking through the other one. We reached the entrance at about the same time, and it probably would have been more inconvenient for her to go through the door I was holding than for her to go through the other one. But I suddenly remembered all of the times I left the Hoke, or walked into the Hoke, always making sure that the person coming the opposite direction, or from behind me, or even in front of me, had a little bit of courtesy from yours truly.
So I started to crave the human interaction and pleasantries that are so unique to Oxford. Not everyone was overwhelmingly nice at Oxford, a lot of people would either walk through their two years without acknowledging you or looking you in the eye. But a lot of people would also stop and just smile at you, just for being on the quad. And would say thank you, even if they didn't go through the door that you were holding for them.
I'm not here to say that Oxford was the greatest place ever. Or that Emory is a big ole fail, and that the people are rude and inconsiderate. I am saying, however, that there was something about the small campus and the group of people there that made it a little closer. A little friendlier. And that made it a little easier to get by.
