I am so angry that I’m shaking right now. I got up early this morning so that I could get a good parking spot because it snowed again and I didn’t feel like walking very far in the cold. I got to the parking lot at 10:30 and I had my class at 11:00, so that gave me half an hour to wait for someone to leave their spot in the lot.

Now, here’s what you should know. There is only one parking lot for graduate assistants that is close to my building. It is always filled, but you generally have a couple of people leave every half hour. If I don’t get a spot in this lot, I have a twenty minute hike to my building, which I generally don’t mind, but not when the temperature is in the single digits or below.

So I was waiting for about twenty five minutes, my class was starting in five minutes, and finally someone was going to leave. I pulled behind their car and waited for them to back out so that I could pull in. Then a silver SUV pulls up. As the car left, I pulled into the spot, and the silver SUV beeped at me. I’m thinking “Okay, I waited 25 minutes for this spot, and now you’re upset because you just pulled up and think you deserve it. Whatever.” That isn’t what I am upset about.

The woman rolled down her window and waited for me to get out of my car and then yelled at me for not being a gentleman. She is a woman, so I should give her the parking spot.

I definitely have my shortcomings, but you can not say that I’m not a gentleman. That is one of the characteristics that I am always consciously making sure I embody. I always hold doors open, am honest and caring, and I live by my word. However, there is a big difference between being a gentleman and being a pushover.

I could have snapped back at her, and I could have said what I really thought of her, but I didn’t. In the words of former First Lady Barbara Bush, she is something that “rhymes with rich.” She said I wasn’t a gentleman, I said “whatever” and I just kept walking to my building. We’ll see what my car looks like when I go back out around 3:00.