OPINION: Always Use Both Doors

BY ALEXANDRA BIRKETT

The summer before entering high school, we had a freshman orientation where upperclassmen would pair with a freshman, tour the school, walk them to each of their future classrooms, and do a lot of ice breakers; very similar to the freshman orientation that Stonehill has for our incoming college freshman. I remember having a lot of fun, however the only solid memory I have from that experience was a piece of advice that a senior gave me during the tour: “Always use both doors.” This was a piece of advice that I not only used every day but gave out to friends and freshmen when I became an orientation leader myself.  

​Now that I’m in my sophomore year of college, I’ve had plenty of time to be able to spot a lot of similarities and differences between my high school and Stonehill. Such as, how we conduct orientation and that a lot of our buildings also have sets of double doors. These buildings include but are not limited to: Duffy, May, Meehan, Shields, Martin, the Library, Spoco, and most of the resident halls. The main difference that has stood out to me -between my high school and Stonehill- is in fact not the food, but that I rarely, if ever see people using both doors. I’ve theorized that this issue is mainly due to Stonehill’s (almost excessive) door holding culture -which may be another piece I write- although this doesn’t always seem to be the case. Regardless of what the reason(s) may be for why we don’t use both doors; we should start making the norm be to always use both doors when finding yourself at this crossroad. This is because using both doors is more proficient, leads to less awkward side stepping, and may save someone -who’s only goal is to get back to their room after an awful class- from feeling obligated to painfully wait in the vestibule to hold open their side of the double door for you as you’re slowly walking in only for you to end up waiting for the next person to come through anyway, and now you’ve caused a buildup of people inside the vestibule just awkwardly waiting for someone to move. Then, I decide to move myself, but my pin gets ripped from my bag because there was no space to move so I had to squeeze between your bag and the wall all because you won’t open the door right in front of your face. So now I’m late for my nap and I’m missing one of my pins.

​The moral of the story? You can get to your class faster if you always use both doors. You can avoid the awkward “who’s going to go first?” game if you always use both doors. And most importantly, don’t be the person who makes someone lose a pin and be late to a date with their bed. Always use both doors.