I’m not an impolite or rude person in public most of the time. I try to wait for people, and to be considerate of most things they do that might slightly inconvenience me. At least, I like to think I am like that. Today I lost my cool in public, and I was a little embarrassed about it later.
I was walking my dog Yoshi around the book around lunch time. This means that the students that go home to eat were walking around. 90% of the students that saw my dog LEAPED into ongoing traffic to escape the fearsome jaws of a 5kg dog that doesn’t want to hurt a soul.
Honestly. Is that picture something that fills you with fear if you saw a dog that size walking down the street? Anyway, I was fine with students endangering themselves needlessly because of my dog.
Unfortunately, three middle school students saw my dog and hurried in front of me. They kept looking back over their shoulders and saying stuff about me and my dog. They locked arms, and walked abreast. The sidewalk had a wall on one side, and a guard rail on the other. There was no way to get past the students if they wouldn’t step to one side or the other. I walked at a pace that said, “Hey, let me by any time, I’ll pass on this side.”
They kept looking back and freaking out that Yoshi was a meter behind them. They continued to lock arms and block the ENTIRE sidewalk, but didn’t want my dog to walk by them. They kept talking and chatting, and looking back. I had no reason to wait for these students to walk down the rest of the street if they let me by.
After about 100 meters of them obstructing my sidewalk, I shouted, “WOULD YOU GET OUT OF THE WAY? I WON’T NEED TO FOLLOW YOU IF YOU’D JUST MOVE! Please!”
The students were more terrified of me speaking English than the dog. They LEAPT out of the way immediately and I passed them. I got some mocking sarcasm from them as I passed. Stupid middle school students.
