@awkward #UMW

By JANINE HENLEY

With a campus like ours that is so ripe with blundering, graceless flowers of students that were late to bloom, awkward moments sprinkle UMW like dusty yellow pollen in springtime. This column will serve to pay homage to those little awkward moments we have come to know as part of our daily life here at Mary Washington.
This week’s awkward moment is brought to you by the Seaco lunch rush and a complete lack of social graces.
Last week I bravely attempted to take my changes with hungry hordes of noontime lunch-goers at Seaco. With the volume of people I encountered you would have thought they were serving lobster and champagne and giving away free ipads with every card swipe. After waiting in line to get in I wandered through all three rooms in the vain hope of finding enough space for me and a friend to enjoy lunch. I finally eyed one that appeared to be unoccupied so I swooped in to grab it before going to find food. Imagine my surprise when I returned to find an unidentified (freshman?) boy had taken up residence at the table I had so obviously marked as mine. I stood over him for a few painful seconds in disbelief, hoping that my mere presence would signal to him that something was amiss. No dice on that one. We stared at each other for thirty seconds that felt like the most uncomfortable eternity before it was clear that he was completely oblivious that any wrong had been done. Either that or he just didn’t care.
I was outgunned, my threshold for awkward had been surpassed before my appetite could be satiated. You win this one Seaco boy.